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Category: treaties – Page 3

Nuclear arsenals remain large enough to fundamentally shift the Earth system in the blink of an eye.

The U.S. and Russia have recently agreed to hold talks on the New START Treaty, and the only accord left regulating the two largest nuclear arsenals in the world. While this is undoubtedly good news, we must not allow it to lull us into complacency. Global events this year, most notably in Ukraine, have raised fears of a nuclear conflict to levels not seen since the cold war. More than 10,000 nuclear warheads remain in the world, and the Kremlin’s language regarding weapons of mass destruction has become increasingly threatening in 2022.

Global famine and climate breakdown

In 1982, a group of scientists, including Carl Sagan, began to raise the alarm about a climate apocalypse that could follow a nuclear war. Using simple computer simulations and historic volcanic eruptions as natural analogs, they showed how smoke that lofted into the stratosphere from urban firestorms could block the sun for years.

They found that this “nuclear winter,” as it came to be called, could trigger catastrophic famine far from the location of the war. Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, leaders of the United States and Soviet Union in the 1980s, both cited this work when they declared that a nuclear war could not be won.

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Avi Loeb, Professor of Science at Harvard University, joins us to discuss a recent interstellar visitor, if we’ve already encountered alien technology, and whether we’re ultimately alone in the cosmos.

Topics discussed in this episode include:

-Whether ‘Oumuamua is alien or natural in origin.
–The culture of science and how it affects fruitful inquiry.
–Looking for signs of alien life throughout the solar system and beyond.
–Alien artefacts and galactic treaties.
–How humanity should handle a potential first contact with extraterrestrials.
–The relationship between what is true and what is good.

You can find the page for this podcast here: https://futureoflife.org/2021/07/09/avi-loeb-on-oumuamua-ali…tructures/

Apply for our new Podcast Producer position here: https://futureoflife.org/job-postings/

Check out the audio version of the episode here: https://soundcloud.com/futureoflife/avi-loeb-on-oumuamua-ali…tructures.

Continue reading “Avi Loeb on ‘Oumuamua, Aliens, Space Archeology, Great Filters, and Superstructures” | >

And now, for old fashion Nuclear Doom.

Music in comments.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations chief warned Monday that “humanity is just one misunderstanding, one miscalculation away from nuclear annihilation,” citing the war in Ukraine, nuclear threats in Asia and the Middle East and many other factors.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres gave the dire warning at the opening of the long-delayed high-level meeting to review the landmark 50-year-old treaty aimed at preventing the spread of nuclear weapons and eventually achieving a nuclear-free world.

The danger of increasing nuclear threats and a nuclear catastrophe was also raised by the United States, Japan, Germany, the U.N. nuclear chief and many other opening speakers at the meeting to review progress and agree to future steps to implement the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, known as the NPT.

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We’re live now, on Space Renaissance YouTube channel, with Wes Faires, giving a lecture on space law:

The Working Group on Space Resources under the United Nations Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UN COPUOS), presents an opportunity for a legally binding instrument to develop under the auspices of the United Nations Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNOOSA), and do so in a manner favorable to space resource utilization for the private sector. The intended result of the Working Group, as stated its 5 years workplan, is to conclude discussions on the development of space resources followed with possible adoption by the United Nations General Assembly as a dedicated resolution or other action. This presentation draws a parallel to a similar scenario with regard to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), where a working group on Deep Sea-Bed resources, executed via specific legal channels within the United Nations, led to a legally binding instrument: The 1994 Agreement on Implementation, resulting in a modification of the international framework governing ocean floor minerals.
The avenue utilized for the execution of the 1994 Agreement on Implementation for UNCLOS provides a course for legally binding instrument to develop via the Working Group on Space Resources. Such an instrument could serve to interpret and elaborate on ambiguities within the Outer Space Treaty framework, while avoiding any parallels to the commercially harmful aspects of the top-down governance structure embedded within the International Seabed Authority.

A short bio.

Charles Wesley Faires made his first entry into the archives of claims to property in Outer Space during college in 2003 when he recorded a 4 page Affidavit claiming ownership to the three stars of Orion’s Belt. In 2006, after graduating with a B.S. in Communications, he made the decision to use this project as a tool obtain an answer from an official source on the legality of off-planet property claims under the Outer Space Treaty once and for all. A formal letter campaign pinpointed the competent authorities for such matters within the U.S. State Department and the United Nations Office of Outer Space Affairs. He made the decision to take the issue of formal confirmation on the compliance or violation of his Claim of Ownership to Orion’s Belt directly to the source of space law which would require participation in the U.N. Committee of Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNVIENNA) – as a private citizen. While at the proceedings, he approached the competent US authorities simply asking whether the claim, in and of itself, executed by a “natural person” stood in violation of the Outer Space Treaty – in the view of the competent authority on behalf of the U.S., there was no violation. This paved the way for formal confirmation that nothing in the underlying documents is prohibited by domestic or treaty law, clearing it for international legal use. Condoleezza Rice’s signature upon a Claim of Ownership to the 3 stars of Orion’s Belt *executed after contact with the competent authority for space/treaty affairs* in November 2008 was the first formal confirmation on behalf of a State Party that private property rights were not patently unlawful under the Outer Space Treaty. He has obtained multiple reaffirmations upon various such claims under the past 3 secretaries of state and is now looking to gain similar confirmation outside the U.S.

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Discovery, Development & Delivery Of Safe, Effective & Affordable Vaccines For Global Public Health — Dr. Jerome H. Kim, M.D., Director General, International Vaccine Institute (IVI)

Dr. Jerome H. Kim, M.D., is the Director General of the International Vaccine Institute (IVI — https://www.ivi.int/), a nonprofit International Organization established in 1997 as an initiative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), dedicated to the discovery, development and delivery of safe, effective and affordable vaccines for global public health.

IVI is headquartered in Seoul and hosted by the Republic of Korea with 36 member countries and the WHO on its treaty.

Dr. Kim served as the Principal Deputy and Chief of the Laboratory of Molecular Virology and Pathogenesis at Military HIV Research Program at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR), in addition to being the Project Manager for the HIV Vaccines and Advanced Concepts Evaluation Project Management Offices, U.S. Army Medical Material Development Activity.

Dr. Kim was also a Professor within the Division of Infectious Diseases of the Department of Medicine at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. From 2004 – 2009 he led the Army’s Phase III HIV vaccine trial (RV144), the first demonstration that an HIV vaccine could protect against infection, as well as subsequent studies that identified laboratory correlates of protection and sequence changes in breakthrough HIV infections after vaccination.

Continue reading “Dr Jerome H. Kim, MD, Director General, IVI — Safe, Effective, Affordable Vaccines For Public Health” | >

The nuclear bombs and missiles market is set to witness growth in this decade as market capitalization will reach $126 billion, Allied Market Research said in a recent report.

Back in 1994, Ukraine had signed on to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and declared itself a non-nuclear state. Even after the annexation of Crimea, the country remained committed to its non-nuclear status and found itself at a disadvantage with Russia threatening to attack its borders. Given that the Ukrainian conflict has continued unabated for over a month now, it is likely that countries will move toward nuclear weapons adversaries. Although a nuclear war would be catastrophic for one and all, the weapon serves as a good deterrence measure during periods of uncertainty.

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Associate Professor Areg Danagoulian credits mentorship with helping him establish a path through nuclear physics.

Mentorship has played a central role in the twists and turns of Associate Professor Areg Danagoulian’s life.

“Verification of nuclear disarmament is very important, because a treaty without verification is worse than no treaty at all,” Danagoulian says, citing the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty that was proposed in the 1950s but not fully adopted until 1996, in part because scientists lacked the technology to reliably differentiate underground testing from seismic events. has played a central role in the twists and turns of Associate Professor Areg Danagoulian’s life.

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The People’s Republic of China, the French Republic, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the United States of America consider the avoidance of war between Nuclear-Weapon States and the reduction of strategic risks as our foremost responsibilities.

We affirm that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought. As nuclear use would have far-reaching consequences, we also affirm that nuclear weapons—for as long as they continue to exist—should serve defensive purposes, deter aggression, and prevent war. We believe strongly that the further spread of such weapons must be prevented.

We reaffirm the importance of addressing nuclear threats and emphasize the importance of preserving and complying with our bilateral and multilateral non-proliferation, disarmament, and arms control agreements and commitments. We remain committed to our Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) obligations, including our Article VI obligation “to pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament, and on a treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control.”

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