Conidi+Weapons+of+Mass+Destruction


 * Research Paper Quick Check **

** Startling and informative opening ** Blackened trees stand burnt and dead as the sun tries to shine through the nuclear debris. All across the horizon, tainted land meets scorched earth, creating a depressing, lifeless wasteland. A few miles to the west, nuclear winter has set in, killing all plants that weren’t already incinerated. This is the earth after a nuclear war. With the rising tensions in the world, if all weapons of mass destruction aren’t destroyed this could be a very realistic scenario.

The unauthorized use or misuse of nuclear weapons and other WMD’s could lead to the destruction of Earth. All current inventions and technology could be forever destroyed, literally sending man back to the Stone Age. Millions of lives could be lost from one poor judgment. The use and production of Weapons of Mass Destruction must be ceased.
 * Quick summary of main question that I mean to answer or reason I think this topic is important **

· “Dirty Bombs” are bombs constructed by attaching nuclear waste to conventional explosives such as C4. It d oes not have power of a nuclear bomb, but it spreads radiation. · On March 20, 1995, the Japanese Cult Aum Shinrikyo (which translates as “The Supreme Truth”) release Sarin into the Tokyo subway system, killing 12 people, seriously injuring 54, and giving hundreds minor injuries.
 * Two or three most interesting things I learned from research **

· Iraq did not have nuclear weapons, but they did have a few old chemical weapons left over from the Gulf War. Although these would most likely be very ineffective and not harm many people, at one point they could’ve been considered minor WMD’s by some people. · Chemical and Biological weapons would not be effective in warfare. Most of them rely heavily on the location of where they are released. If the wind is blowing the wrong way, the virus or chemical released could blow right back into whomever released its army. Biological weapons also take a fairly long time to use. In war, if you were to launch a virus inhabited artillery shell into enemy lines, the enemy could flee that position with only a few infected personnel. Chemical and biological weapons would best be used defending an area or attacking a heavily populated area, such as a city. If a hostile ground troops were moving in to assault a city, tear gas or mustard gas could be deployed. It would irritate the victim’s eyes and throats and force them to turn back. The Soldiers would be demoralized and a lot less eager to attack. Biological weapons would best be used for attacking a city. If you released Anthrax spores into a city, thousands of people would die. The cleanup would be extremely expensive and any spot that was missed would still be dangerous because anthrax spores linger for an extremely long time. A disease like Cholera could secretly be sprayed over a city’s food and water supplies. By the time it was noticed that the food was tainted, hundreds of people would already be infected. The victim’s diarrhea and vomit would increase the infection rate, and the people would die rapidly. Unless the dead bodies were burned, they could infect the people that handled them. If the nation had the Cholera vaccine, it would only be 50% effective, still causing a massive outbreak with many fatalities.
 * Confirmation or rejection of one or two commonly held beliefs about this topic **

Your father works in the city in a large skyscraper. It’s about an hour and a half to two hour drive. You’re watching the T.V. when a breaking newsflash indicates that there are nuclear warheads that were launched towards most of the major cities, including the one your father works in. The approximate time to impact is 35 minutes. You are instructed to stay in you basement and keep the T.V. on. All you can do is hope your father is ok at the end of the day.
 * Something to connect the topic to the reader's life so that he/she will care **


 * A closing surprise...intriguing fact, quotation, or discovery from my own research **

· A nuclear explosion could break your window from 25 miles away. · It only takes 500 micrograms of Ricin (which is 1 grain of salt) to be fatal.

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