'Backyard Burnoff' : Johnston Atoll Incineration

Abstract

This is a story about what happens when Governments and scientists create monsters that won't easily be put down. It is the legacy of millions of dollars spent on perfecting a deadly weapon. Johnston Atoll, 1,000 kilometers southwest of Hawaii became the subject of much debate when the United States Government decided to relocate it's chemical stock of nuclear gases. There was mixed concerns regarding the issue. Australia's Prime Minister Bob Hawke urged Pacific Island Governments to support the burn off for disarmament reasons. Greenpeace asked that the whole process be done with the proper procedures adhered to, despite criticisms that it was further delaying the process of ridding the earth of chemical weapons. Although the 1925 Geneva Protocol Agreement was set up as a response to the horrors of the first World War where 1 million men became victims of the nuclear gas, it is obvious it's implications were short-lived. Science on the other hand has yet to prove it is capable of safely demilitarizing it's own agent of death.