Date: Sat, 12 Nov 2005 23:33:32 -0800
To: "Marvin L. Cohen"
From: "jhirsch@ucsd.edu"
Subject: On nuclear weapons policy to APS
Cc: kgriest@ucsd.edu
Marvin Cohen, APS President; Leo Kadanoff, APS President Elect; Frank von Hippel, POPA Chair
Dear Marvin, Leo, Frank
Hi. My colleague Kim Griest and I wrote to you recently (letter attached), to which we received no response yet. I am writing again to update you on the petition (http://physics.ucsd.edu/petition/). There are currently 1264 physicists signatories, 568 of them are US physicists, many of them prominent members of the APS (8 Nobel laureates, more than 40 NAS members, and several hundred faculty at major US universities.)
The petition shows that many members of our society are very concerned with this issue. It is likely that many more that have not signed yet share this concern. We hope you will make a statement reminding the world and the US administration on the great dangers of nuclear weapons, and on the dangers of the new US policies, at your last meeting of this year, November 18-20.
As you know the issue is not new. In 2003, 10 senators wrote to the President warning on the dangers of the new US nuclear weapons policies. I am attaching their letter to this email. In 2002, several experts including Frank wrote to the President about it (letter attached). The administration has ignored these warnings as the recent "Doctrine" document shows. It is essential to step up the pressure, especially since these policies could become reality soon.
The APS has never made any statement about it, and its silence rings very loud...This is a very significant year for physicists and nuclear weapons, 100-th anniversary of E=mc^2 and 60-th anniversary of Hiroshima, and the opportunity should not be missed... Any statement from APS now would help I suggest, independent of a more comprehensive statement next year...
Thank you for your consideration of this.