Sound science & common sense: the recent Doctors for Disaster Preparedness conference refuted politically driven science and provided commonsense ways to deal with both real and imagined threats.

The 24th Annual Conference of Doctors for Disaster Preparedness (DDP) was held August 4-6 in Ed Hiserodt is the author of Under-Exposed: What If Radiation Is Really Good for You? Portland, Oregon, attracting its usual contingent of world-class scientists, researchers, and policy experts. In addition to its traditional theme of civil preparations for action in the event of a nuclear attack, earthquake, bio-terrorism, or similar disasters, the conference has evolved into a forum where papers on technical issues of the day can be presented to an eclectic mix of physicians, working professionals, and academics. I was honored to attend this distinguished gathering both as a speaker on "Radiation Phobia" and as an observer for THE NEW AMERICAN.

The title of this year's DDP conference was "The Challenges Ahead: Will Sound Science Prevail?" That question was very much on the minds of attendees. Many of the brilliant thinkers and researchers that were present have been in the forefront of valiant efforts to assure that we will be able to answer it in the affirmative.

With Al Gore's new "documentary" on global warming, An Inconvenient Truth, heating up the local theaters and charging up the bandwagon for the Kyoto (global warming) treaty, it was a foregone conclusion that climate change would be a significant topic on the DDP conference program. As usual, the DDP brought some outstanding authorities to address this crucial issue: Willie Soon, Ph.D., physicist at the Solar and Stellar Physics Division of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, an astronomer at the Mount Wilson Observatory, chief science researcher at the Center for Science and Public Policy and author of The Maunder Minimum; George Taylor, state climatologist for Oregon and past president of the American Association of State Climatologists; and a cameo appearance on the subject by one of the world's most respected authorities--Dr. S. Fred Singer, who noted it has been 10,000 years since the last ice age, which occurs roughly every 10,000 years.

Dr. Soon, who addressed the issue of "Hurricanes, Global Warming, and the Sun," has done groundbreaking research showing that contrary to the scenarios of global-warming advocates, there is no credible evidence to suggest that the Katrina hurricane disaster and other hurricanes are the result of anthropogenic, or human-caused, activities on the natural environment. He reported on research by the Japanese who have been able to determine the effects of heating with unparalleled accuracy and who came to the same conclusions as Soon. The solar energy from the Sun, Soon said, which is not a constant but fluctuates, is far more dominant than the human impact on climate.

Propaganda, Not Consensus

George Taylor, who addressed "Global Warming: The Dangers of 'Consensus,'" is well qualified in this area as he has himself been the victim of the Big Smear by radical environmentalists and their media allies. Like other scientists and policymakers who wouldn't toe the Kyoto line and have even been threatened with having their research funds cut if they continue to oppose the phony science, Taylor is under constant political pressure to hew to the plan to subject the United States (along with the entire planet) to a United Nations-administered global environmental regulatory regime.

One of the most common themes in the major media about global warming is that there exists a vast "consensus" among scientists that man-made global warming is a fact. When any mention is made of scientists who disagree with this "consensus," they are typically portrayed as "skeptics" who fall outside the scientific mainstream and are in the pocket of big energy companies. But no such consensus exists. In fact, Drs. Arthur Robinson and S. Fred Singer have spearheaded a petition drive that has obtained the signatures of about 17,000 scientists who oppose the Kyoto treaty. (For more information about the petition, go to www.oism.org/pproject/). And as to the issue of science and prostitution, it is fairly easy to prove who is really selling themselves. It is the global warming "scientists" who are receiving the big payoffs--from Big Government, Big Business, Big Media, Big Foundations, and the Big Green environmental organizations.

The high stakes involved in the heated debate over climate change were brought home to the DDP audience by John A. Charles, Jr., president of the Cascade Policy Institute, who has written extensively on the horrendous economic impact that Kyoto-style mandates will have on communities, cities, and states. Mr. Charles and his associates at the Cascade Policy Institute have scored major hits by exposing the massive statistical fraud used by the environmental lobby to falsely present Portland, Oregon, as a model city that has already achieved Kyoto mandates while maintaining economic vibrancy.

The government officials who issued the Portland-Kyoto disinformation have been forced to admit that they released grossly erroneous data and that Portland's C[O.sub.2] emissions had not decreased as they had claimed. In fact, available evidence suggests just the opposite, that C[O.sub.2] in the metro area has increased. Portland's formula for reducing C[O.sub.2]: Raise the gasoline tax so that people will leave town to fill up, then base C[O.sub.2] emissions on the amount of gasoline sold in the city.

Other Topics of Interest

As important as the global-warming debate is in the current political climate, it did not dominate the conference. Many other vital issues also were addressed.

Donald Miller, M.D., professor of Cardiac Surgery at the University of Washington, delivered an informative and provocative lecture on "Iodine in Health and Civil Defense." In his talk, Dr. Miller challenged the conventional nutritional wisdom on recommended daily iodine intake. He also reminded public health authorities of the long-accepted (but, unfortunately, also long-neglected and forgotten) fact that potassium iodide is vitally important for protecting the civilian population against deadly thyroid cancer caused by nuclear fallout from a nuclear attack (whether from terrorists, Russia, China, or other adversaries).

"Iodine is one of 25 elements that make up the human body, number 12 in number of atoms, after magnesium," noted Dr. Miller. The Recommended Daily Intake (RDI) of iodine adopted by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Health Organization (WHO) and various U.S. agencies is way too low, said Dr. Miller, citing an impressive number of studies indicating that iodine deficiency is a serious problem for millions of Americans.

A high point of the conference for your humble reporter was an afternoon session on nuclear radiation, in which I was bracketed by two revered legends of the nuclear age: Dr. Theodore Rockwell, inventor, author, and the technical director of Admiral Rickover's program to build the nuclear Navy and the first commercial atomic power plant; and Physics Professor Emeritus Bernard Cohen of the University of Pittsburgh, who has authored many books and papers on nuclear energy. As I stated to the conference guests, I felt a bit like Alfred E. Neuman sandwiched between Aristotle and Sir Isaac Newton.

Irrational fear of nuclear radiation is actually causing much environmental damage, while the worldwide economic benefits of nuclear energy are incalculable. Yet, due to the hysterical four-decade long propaganda campaign against nuclear power, we have not licensed a new nuclear power plant in the United States in the last 35 years. Meanwhile, other industrialized and developing nations have taken the nuclear technology we have spurned and are charging ahead with plans for clean nuclear energy and freedom from dependence on foreign oil.

The Doctors for Disaster Preparedness conference also featured a presentation by Dr. D. Rutledge Taylor, a specialist in preventive medicine, who is producing a documentary film on the effects of the DDT ban, entitled Three Billion and Counting. Dr. Taylor interviewed spokesmen for the suffering Africans and Asians who are denied the life-giving benefit of DDT, and the smug government officials who usually say, "We just banned production in the United States," totally ignoring the fact that our ban has led to other bans and Draconian economic disincentives by other countries, particularly European nations.

Other presentations in the DDP conference included: "Preventing (or Accelerating) Aging and Degenerative Disease," by Bruce Ames, Ph.D., inventor of the Ames test for mutagenicity and professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at U.C. Berkeley; "Bioterrorism," by Vincent Fulginiti, Ph.D., smallpox vaccine expert and founding head of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Arizona College of Medicine; and "Cancer, Stem Cells, and the Human Genome Project: Politically Incorrect Views," by Tom Bethell, author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Science. In citing the above featured lectures, I do not intend to slight the many other outstanding speakers whom we do not have sufficient space to mention.

Jane Orient, M.D., president of Doctors for Disaster Preparedness, is to be commended for organizing this exceptional gathering of scientific crusaders for truth, along with the support of the Oregon Institute for Science and Medicine, Physicians for Civil Defense, and Access to Energy. When Dr. Orient was asked why so many renowned scientists spoke at the preparedness conferences, she answered: "They are dedicated to the cause of promoting the truth, and there are really not many opportunities for them to speak to a friendly audience."

For more information about the conference, including audio recordings, please visit the Doctors for Disaster Preparedness website at: www.oism.org/ddp/.

Ed Hiserodt is the author of Under-Exposed: What If Radiation Is Really Good for You?