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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 13, 1985)
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INTER “1 I ng It 260-9184 i i0 ITS rs IT. t v j il 3 1 d ! 1 Friday, September 13, 1985AThe Battalion/Page 11 SHOE by Jeff MacNelly Survivors of nuclear blasts could slowly starve to death Associated Press WASHINGTON — Billions of people who somehow survived the first blasts of a nuclear war would merely face drawn-out deaths by starvation, an international scientific group said Thursday in a new study supporting the theory of a crop-ru ining global “nuclear winter.” Though an image of total devasta tion after a nuclear attack may well be accurate for areas around actual targets, one of the report’s authors said famine conditions in unscathed areas would be far more typical as hundreds of millions of tons of black smoke drastically cut sunlight and robbed crops of needed warmth and light from the sun. “We are left with images of Ethio pia and the Sudan as Ixmig more representative of what the world would look like after a nuclear war for most of the people than the sorts of images we have of Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” Dr. Mark Harwell of Cornell University said at a news conference on the report. He said it estimated f amine deaths of 1 billion to 4 billion of the world’s 5 billion people after direct blast and radiation effects of actual attacks cost several hundred million lives. The two-volume report, prepared by a special committee of the Inter national Council of Scientilic Unions, suggests that black smoke f rom nuclear attacks on urban areas — the main trigger for a “nuclear winter” — would cause sudden and perhaps long-term declines in tem peratures and in light reaching the Earth, even in nations far from those attacked. The chairman of the study group. Sir Frederick Warner of Britain, for mer chairman of the British Na tional Committee on Problems of the Environment, said, “This effort rep resents the consensus of a presti gious body of scientists. It would be a grave error to ignore their findings.” But Reagan administration offi cials have said repeatedly that they accept the general concept of nu clear winter but believe it is one more reason to stick to their policy of seeking arms control while contin uing to build new nuclear weapons as a deterrent to Soviet attack. Harwell, associate director of the Ecosystems Research Center at Cor nell, told reporters the new report’s conclusions “don’t represent the views of . . . people with any partic ular policy position, but rather we feel this is a sober assessment by 200 of the top world scientists on agricul ture and ecologic systems.” Big harvest will yield low prices; farmers may turn to loan program Associated Press CHAMPAIGN, III. — Bill Klein expects his 1985 corn and soybean harvest to be among the best, hut it domes at a time when prices are among the worst. “Ii'sa mixed blessing," said Klein, who has been farming at Seymour for nine years. “Big crops usually mean low prices, and prices are ter rible." Klein, like many farmers, will get more money for his crops by storing most of them as collateral for gov ernment loans, without which, he says, “I’d be in serious trouble.” The U.S. Department of Agric ul ture estimates that fanners will har vest a record 8.47 billion bushels of corn this fall and a substantial 2.Ob billion bushels of soybeans. About two-thirds of the corn and all the beans-are eligible for the loan program. And that’s where analysts expect a major part of the harvest to g0 ; “All farmers would rather pro duce for a market than let the gov ernment have it,” said Dain Friend of Warrensburg, president-elect of the National Corn Growers Associa tion. “But the farmer, no matter what his conviction, will let his billfold do die talking, especially if he owes the bank money,” he said. Klein, who agreed to reduce corn plaining by 10 percent this year at the government’s request, can use grain as collateral for a loan at the rate of $2.55 a bushel — much more “A// fanners would rather produce lor a market than let the government have it.” — Dain Friend, president elect of the national corn growers. than the market offers. Factoring in the government deficiency pay ments offered when prices are low, they are assured of at least $3.03 a bushel for a substantial part of their corn. At the close Wednesday, corn for December delivery was selling for $2.19 a bushel at the Chicago Board ol Trade, and soybeans for Novem ber delivery were $5.08. Klein said he sold about two- thirds of his 1985 corn while it was growing, he said, but the rest of that crop also will be stored as collateral for a government loan. In tiiti^ months, farmers have the option of repaying the loans if mar ket prices are higher than loan lev els, or of forfeiting the grain if prices are depressed. In the latter case, the government will have bought their grain for more than anyone else would pay. With a large amount of corn and soybeans under loan, grain analysts expect that, as free supplies dwindle, buyers briefly will bid prices above the loan levels to entice farmers to sell. But the supply is huge and de mand relatively weak, they say, so grain will continue to pile up and de press prices. The corn price-support program of loans and deficiency payments will save many eligible farmers from disaster this year, said Darrel Good, an agricultural economist at the Uni versity of Illinois. Groups differ on meeting ploce - Associated Press WASHINGTON — Christian and Jewish groups are taking opposing sides in a case now before the U.S. Supreme Court over whether stu dent religious groups can meet in non-class periods in public schools. Congress recently passed an equal-access law saying student reli gious groups had the same right to meet in public schools as other spe cial groups and clubs, but a case from Williamsport, Pa., has brought the issue before the court. Christian groups have urged the court to uphold such student rights, saying a lower court’s refusal to do so prohibited freedom of speech. However, major Jewish groups filed briefs taking opposing views. The American Jewish Congress said free-speech rights do not entitle students to form religious clubs. The American Jewish Committee argued that to permit such student meetings would put school authori ties in the position of supporting re ligion, contrary to the Constitional ban against establishing religion. 1% faff 1 H & & £k Impress Your Class Use video presentations for projects teaching aids and reports We creatively transfer prints, slides, artwork and 8mm movies to VHS or Beta. 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