Mathias Koch - Entry No 4 (Masco)

The power of the bomb makes people feel protected and secure with the national forces, but it also makes them think about the devastation this power has to nature and weather. The media helps people realized how this security is made and how it also affects us. The problem is that we have two huge crises, the one with the national security and on the other hand, the nature one. The focus in the nuclear weapon and its investigations and researches also brings attached the idea of climate, and what are humans doing to it. The more they focus in the nuclear power, the more they discover that the climate was changing. A new sense of responsibility was now in the heads of the more powerful man in earth.

In 1953 the United States was interested in testing his nuclear bombs in the nature. They reconstruct a forest in the dessert with a lot of trees and concrete, to see how this bomb would work in a real fight. It was a confidential procedure, and it was film from several angles. This is what the study shows: “Post-blast surveys indicated that approximately twenty percent of the trees were broken and the missile hazard from falling trunks and limbs would be substantial.” For me the study shows the dehumanization of humans, because although it is talking about the effects the bomb produced to the tries, when they talk about limbs we can easily connect that they were talking about the destruction that this bomb will produce to the humans also. It is strong to see the expression of their words and comparisons. 

Although they were considered “tests”, the damage to de nature was huge and real. But it also helped the scientists. In 1954 the U.S. tested a very potent bomb, which produced huge contamination to the atmosphere. With this contamination, scientist could track and discover how the global atmosphere had new wind patterns. But wind was not the only thing scientists studied; they also focus in the effect nuclear power had on health. This was huge. At the same time, the citizens of the world start demanding the Governments to stop using this bombs and to put an end to the testing’s. The atomic response to this demand was to create a ‘Committee on Meteorological Aspects of the Effects of Atomic Radiation’ which of course denied everything. In reality, the whole world was damaged because of the atomic power.

The war helped to develop the satellites and the internet. With these two elements major discoveries about earth and its weather were possible establishing the early data sets and infrastructure for climate science. Although this was positive in a way, the true consequences of national security were devastating and the experts who acknowledge this were treated as enemies. Two lines of scientists were drawn, the one who focus in the environment, and the other who focus on war.

In the 1980, almost 40 years since the beginning of the nuclear bombs, we were still with the same problems. An important scientist, Louis Alvarez, told that the dinosaurs were extinct because of a huge asteroid that hit the planet millions of years ago. And he said that the nuclear power could make the same to us. So these create a new sense of responsibility and heavy debate. New articles and books were delivered to the citizens, creating a new perspective about national security and war (Nuclear war and winter). Then come the movies (The day after tomorrow) and other media, it was all made to promote global nuclear disarmament and an end to the Cold War arms race. Hollywood is the main character in this fight against war. It is known to show at least one movie a year in which the effects and apocalyptic figure of war is visible for everyone.

Schwartz and Randall were two futurists that take this thing seriously. They make a report about war and its effect on earth in the future years. They imagine the unthinkable, a world without food and water for everyone, which marked a new age in consciousness about war and nuclear power. That couldn’t be unseen: “Climate change will thus redraw the geopolitical map on new terms, as states compete not just for prestige and power, but also for food and energy.”