Weapons of Mass Destruction
About The Legacy Program
The global challenge of eliminating and cleaning up Cold War weapons requires a response that is global in scope.
The Security & Sustainability Program, internationally known as the Legacy Program,is an international effort by Global Green USA, the US affiliate of Green Cross International, and Green Cross affiliates in Belarus, Canada, Germany, Italy, Russia, Switzerland and the Ukraine. Operating on the principle of “cooperation, not confrontation,” the Legacy Program facilitates the complex process of demilitarization through education, outreach and dialogue across local, state and national borders.
The Legacy Program maintains a strong commitment to transparency, accountability, and communication as the foundation for successful threat reduction and engages all parties, from high-level policymakers to experts to local communities, in the search for the safest and most responsible road to peace.
Specifically, the Legacy Program implements public outreach and education programs on issues related to demilitarization, threat reduction and nonproliferation, including military base cleanup and conversion, emergency-preparedness, protection of public health and environment, and the socio-economic stability of communities impacted by weapons stockpiles.
Program Description
All around the world, stockpiles of chemical and nuclear weapons, biological pathogens, conventional weapons and related materials threaten human health and the environment and pose a tremendous risk to global security.
Operating on the principle of "cooperation, not confrontation," Global Green's Legacy Program advocates the safe and sound elimination of weapons of mass destruction and conventional weapons and facilitates cleanup of related military materials and waste.
In partnership with our Green Cross affiliates in Switzerland and Russia, where together we have set up and managed 12 Public Outreach Offices at Chemical Weapons stockpile and other sensitive sites, we facilitate this process by:
- Educating U.S. and foreign policy-makers on the importance of support for nonproliferation, arms control, and demilitarization worldwide;
- Providing public health and environment-related information and emergency-preparedness training to weapons stockpile communities;
- Promoting transparency, accountability and collaboration around issues of demilitarization and nonproliferation through international meetings, exchanges, and media outreach.
The Effects of Chemical Weapons on the Human Body
There are literally thousand of chemical substances that are poisonous to humans. About 70 different chemical agents (classified based on their specific properties) have been used in the manufacture of chemical weapons.
Following is a description of the tremendous impact these agents can have on human life and health -- not to mention the repercussions on our land, water, and air -- should a weapon accidently be detonated by natural disaster or terrorist action.
Impact of Chemical Weapons
- Choking Agents: victims breathes in poison gas, fluid builds up in lungs, choking the victim.
- Blister Agents: victim absorbs poison through lungs or skin, causing burning of windpipe and lungs.
- Blood Agents: poison is absorbed through lungs, eliminating ability to absorb oxygen and strangling the heart.
- Nerve Agents: victim absorbs poison through skin or lungs, resulting in seizures, paralysis and death.
Legacy News
U.S. Boosts Funding for Last Two CW Disposal Sites
Global Security Newswire. Nov 6, 2008. By Chris Schneidmiller
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Defense Department has received its highest-ever budget for preparing two chemical weapons disposal sites that hold the key to meeting the congressional demand to eliminate the entire U.S. stockpile by 2017.
The $427.5 million provided to the Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives program for fiscal 2009 is a step in the right direction toward providing the money that will be needed to meet the deadline, one longtime observer said.
Paul Walker, security and sustainability program head for Global Green USA, estimated that the Army’s side of chemical weapons elimination is more likely to be finished in 2013 to 2014. Learn More
South Korea Completes Destruction of Its Chemical Weapons Stockpile
Environmental News Service. October 17, 2008.
THE HAGUE, Netherlands - In a step towards the global elimination of chemical weapons, South Korea has become the second country to destroy its declared chemical weapons stockpile. The country beat its December 31, 2008 deadline by at least three months.
The accomplishment, which took place since June, has not been announced publicly because South Korea has requested full confidentiality under the Chemical Weapons Convention, an international treaty that requires the destruction of all chemical weapons stockpiles worldwide.
Dr. Paul Walker, director of Global Green USA's Security and Sustainability Program, has been following this issue.
"The elimination of several thousand tons of deadly nerve agents in South Korea marks a major historic initiative in global abolition of chemical weapons, in implementation of the international Chemical Weapons Convention, and in demilitarizing the Korean Peninsula," he said today.
"South Korea deserves our sincere congratulations in destroying its entire chemical weapons arsenal and making the Korean Peninsula a more stable and peaceful region," said Walker. Learn More
Abolishing Chemical Weapons Globally: Successes and Challenges - An NGO Perspective
OPCW. September 24, 2008. By: Dr Paul F. Walker, Legacy Program Director, Global Green USA
The successful, verified elimination of some 40% of the six declared chemical weapons stockpiles in the first 11 years of the Chemical Weapons Convention represents a major achievement for the treaty regime and its implementing body, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). The primary goal of the Convention – the total elimination of existing chemical weapons stockpiles – is well on the way to being met in the foreseeable future. Learn More
What I've Learned: Mikhail Gorbachev
ESQUIRE. Sept 10, 2008. By Cal Fussman
That Louis Vuitton ad? The proceeds go to Green Cross International and its American counterpart, Global Green. Also, I travel a lot, and a good bag comes in handy.
Look at what happened in New Orleans. Look at how big the blow was and how difficult the consequences are in dealing with such a blow. Imagine what would happen in a situation where nuclear weapons were used. Imagine the effect of the radiation. It's been years since the Chernobyl accident, and there are towns and villages where people do not live. The towns are still there. They haven't been torn down, but not a single person lives there. So this is a very serious matter--more than serious. Learn More
Hopeful Gorbachev receives Liberty Medal
Philadelphia Daily News, Sept. 19, 2008. By Stephanie Farr
Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev accepted the 2008 Liberty Medal last night at the National Constitution Center after delivering a sharp rebuttal to remarks made earlier in the day by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Nobel Peace Prize winner, Gorbachev was honored with the 20th Liberty Medal for his role in ending the Cold War and bringing "glasnost," or political openness, to the former Soviet Union.
"He knew it was up to him to lead this revolution," Mayor Nutter said. Learn More
Russia opens 4th chemical weapons destruction plant
INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE. June 17, 2008.
Russia opened a fourth plant Tuesday to destroy its chemical weapons stockpiles, which are the largest in the world.
The destruction facility, located near the site of one of Russia's seven major chemical weapons arsenals, will help accelerate an ambitious effort to fully eliminate the stockpiles in less than four years.
The plant near Leonidovka in the Penza Oblast holds 7,600 tons (6,885 metric tons) of VX, sarin, and soman nerve agents, about 17 percent of Russia's declared chemical weapons stockpile, according to Global Green USA, the Washington-based affiliate of former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev's Green Cross International environmental organization. Learn More
Spring Valley Weapons Search to Continue
WASHINGTON POST. May 30, 2008.
The cleanup of World War I chemical weapons buried under the Spring Valley neighborhood of Northwest Washington could last three more years, as crews search for more shells and remove tainted soil, officials said yesterday.
The Spring Valley cleanup began in 1993, after a construction crew uncovered buried shells from a former testing ground for chemical weapons near American University.
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Publications
Abolishing Chemical Weapons Globally: Successes and Challenges - An NGO Perspective
This is an article by Dr. Paul F Walker, Security and Sustainability Program Director at Global Green USA. It was published in the September issue of the Chemical Disarmament Quarterly, a publication by the Organization for theProhibition of Chemical Weapons. The article, from an NGO perspective, highlights the important successes over the past decade as well as the challenges facing the OPCW for completing its primary goals of global elimination of chemical weapons.
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Evolving Nuclear Realities and US-Russian Relations
This is a summary of the second Nuclear National DIalogue organized by Global Green USA/ Green Cross in April 2008 in St. Petersburg Russia. The event was organized in partnership with the Stanely Foundation who provided this summary of the conference. Proceedings of this unique event have been published in Russian and will soon be avaliable in English in December 2008, in both hard copy and electronic versions.
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