Tourists driving I-25
between Albuquerque and Santa Fe expect to see billboards extolling
ski resorts, restaurants and casinos, but may be surprised by a
series of evocative ads that question the nuclear-weapons industry
in New Mexico.
The Los Alamos Study Group, a
nonprofit, research-oriented, nuclear disarmament organization in
Santa Fe, has placed five billboards with an anti-nuclear weapons
theme along that stretch of highway.
The
billboards’ messages: “Welcome to New Mexico, America’s waste
colony”; “New Mexico world center of weapons of mass destruction”;
“New Mexico #1 in nuclear weapons, #1 in poverty, COINCIDENCE?”;
and ” ‘Nuclear weapons are incompatible with the peace we seek for
the 21st Century’ – the Vatican.”
The billboards
highlight the fact that more federal funds ($1.8 billion) are spent
per year in New Mexico on nuclear-weapons research and production
than any other state, and that the state is home to over 2,500
nuclear warheads. This booming nuclear industry is contrasted with
the state’s high poverty rates and nuclear-waste problems (Los
Alamos Lab’s Area G alone contains 7 million cubic-feet of
radioactive and chemical waste).
You can reach
the Los Alamos Study Group at 212 E. Marcy Street, Suite 10, Santa
Fe, NM 87501, call 505/982-7747, e-mail info@lasg.org, or check out
the group’s Web site, www.lasg.org.
Copyright © 2001 HCN and John
Rosapepe
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Billboards blast bomb industries.
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