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NMD a costly proposition

The United States government would have to spend up to $64 billion in the next 13 years to develop and build a National Missile Defense system, according to budget analysts within the U.S. Congress.

Constructing a system of interceptor rockets based on land or launched from ships would cost between $23 billion to $64 billion by 2015, the Congressional Budget Office said last week.

The latest estimates for a ground-based missile defense system are 13 per cent to 26 percent higher than last year’s estimate.

Just one NMD site with 100 missiles on a single ground site would cost US$23 billion to US$25 billion through 2015, and running that system would cost about US$600 million a year.

The U.S. defense department is also investigating an even more costly ship-based missile system of space-based lasers that would shoot down missiles.

The NMD would destroy incoming missiles from enemy countries with nuclear capability, such as North Korea, Iran and Iraq. Erecting missile defenses would protect the U.S. from countries or groups that may use long-range missiles to engage in "nuclear blackmail," U.S. defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld said last week.

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February 8, 2002

Arctic Eco-tourism conference

About 80 tourism officials and outfitters from circumpolar nations are invited to attend an Arctic Eco-tourism conference from April 25 to 28 in Hemavan, Sweden. Topics up for discussion include conservation as well as eco-tourism practices, certification and marketing.

The conference, organized by the World Wildlife Federation and several national and international eco-tourism associations, will produce a declaration on eco-tourism. This declaration, the first from the Arctic, will be presented at the World Eco-tourism Conference in Quebec City, May 19 to 22.

The timing of this major international conference reflects a United Nations decision to declare 2002 as the Year of Eco-Tourism.

For more information on how to register for the conference in Sweden, contact Marianne Lodgaard at arctic@wwf.no.

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February 8, 2002

Environmentalists are Russia’s new dissidents

The case of Russian journalist Grigory Pasko, jailed last month for spying, highlights the risks run by environmental activists in Russia, reports Agence France Presse.

Those who attack the Russian army, which environmentalists in Russia say is one of the country’s biggest polluters, can easily end up in prison – just like Soviet-era dissidents.

Pasko, a 40-year-old former reporter for the Pacific Fleet’s newspaper, was sentenced to four years in prison for high treason after he told Japanese journalists the Russian navy had illegally dumped nuclear waste into the Sea of Japan.

A Russian member of parliament said Russia is not ready for environmental protection and any information that environmentalists wish to make public could be used as an excuse for legal proceedings against them.

However, local ecologists say corruption at the highest levels is endangering the environment.

Despite negative public opinion, last year the Russian government agreed to take in nuclear waste from abroad for US$20 billion.

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