Oregon daily emerald., April 08, 1996, Page 2, Image 2

VIEWPOINTS
fOITORIAtS, OPINIONS UTTERS TO THE EOtTOW
U.S. could learn lesson
from illegal gas import
■ OUR OPINION: CPC
shipments form India make
dilemma for the nation
The Willamette Valiev's
high humidity will soon
mi* with even higher tem
pera! ures as the season
advances through spring
and tiptoe* into the warmer
tummer month*
For some commuter*, the
higher mercury reading*
and combined element* can
mean a sweaty drive
between home, school and
work, on those longer trip*
up or down the interstate, or
during one of those tourney*
across town. But for many
other drivers, the bother*
some heat can be defeated
by a single push or tweak of
a dashboard button or two
Air conditioning — that
manufactured, coot air that
soothe* the sweltering
The stuff is a gas called
chlorofluorocarbon-12. also
known as Freon, and It* pro
duction ha* been ban nett in
the U.S. because the tub
stance he* the nasty effect of
depleting the Earth's protec
tive ozone layer.
A* an example ol Amerf
Hw dou
ble-standard. Freon
production is banned here,
out the selling of the harm
ful gas is not — and It Is
expensive
Several year* ago, the U S.
slapped heavy taxes and
import tariffs on Freon to
plav its part in forc ing other
nation* to wean themselves
from CPC: i 2 production
and to stay on schedule
with the Montreal Protocol
of 1987 — • treaty that ha*
tried to get the world com
munity to use different
chemical* for coolant pro
duction.
India, which still pro
duces the gas legally. has
been making a profit by
smuggling CPC-12 by the
ton into this country, where
American markets are inly
ing it and allowing UJ, dll*
rent to keep t ool on the
cboap.
Tbn black market trad* U
•a bad. the U.S. Custom*
Service contidpr* It to bn as
big a problem as illegal
drugs
Most of us have heard the
old saying, "what goes
around comes around."
With the current CPC situa*
lion, the U.S. is getting a
taste uf its own medicine.
While public opinion and
legislation continues to
pound down the doors of
the tobacco industry, the
nation continues to inhale
the second-hand smoke of
hypocrisy by allowing
tobacco products to bo
exported to the rest of the
world in an uninterrupted
trade of death We should at
least require tobacco compa
nies to send coffin* with
each of their cigarette ship
ments.
Another example of
exporting death, the U.S is
undoubtedly the world's
largest weapons exporter.
* WlfHafieim httemaWmifl
cause ilegitimate or not) that
wants to. can get a* many
pieces of war-making items
in as many different forms
as possible — as long as
they can pay the bill
The U S also exports
oppression. Thanks to com
pantos like Nike tin Indone
siai and many other
corporation* that have cho
sen to maximire their prof
it* by investing in
slave-labor, vm* can all wear
our favorite fashions thanks
to the blood, sweat and tears
of impoverished workers
who make next to nothing
for their efforts.
Is it getting warm in here'
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Scientists study evidence of life on Mars
TIh* next limp you're mil stargasing. w if
you i.»n nod the pi a net Man and con
cider this There is a definite possibility
that laRM or ail of our ancient ancestor*
mote !mm there
On March 21. a group of scientists and engi
neer* held a press conference at the National
Pom* Club in Washington, D C to announce that
they may have found evident* of large artificial
structures on the moon Given the nature of the
poop)* holding the conference, the media were
polite, but they qutekiv dismissed the report a«
ridiculous.
To understand the link between the ridiculed
report and the possibility that we may be the
descendant* of Martian* we have to go back 20
year* to the cummer of 19?fi NASA was begin
ning to receive close-up fihotu* of Mar* from its
Viking *|«i m raft. and journalists from all over
the world camped out at the let Propul*ion Lab
oralone* in Pasadena Calif. to feed on the pho
tos in the fPL pres* releases
The photos showed vast wasteland* occasion
ally punctuated by craggy mountains, volcanoes
and deep canyon*. The drama! n geology height
erred the excitement of seeing the surface of
Mar* for the first time And then someone
noticed that one of the ruc k formation* looked
almost like a human face The fl'l, press agent
•aid the sc ientists had noticed it. hut dismissed
it as a trick of lighting He said that the “face*
didn't show up on photo* from later passes He
was wrung
There was a second photo that showed the
■face" even more clearly, hut it would never
have come to light except fee she curiosity of
one man Richard HoagUnd
Hoag land was a consultant to NASA a God
dard Space Flight Center, and he found the
"face" so intriguing that he started looking
closely at all of the photos taken of that area
Months of painstakingly checking thousands of
photo*, most of which had not been released to
the public, finally paid off with the second
photo It had been taken in better light at a dif
ferent angle, and It showed the "face" more
clearly NASA again dismissed it as a trick of
light
Unsatisfied with NASA's dismissal. Hoagland
decided to do some serious analysis of the two
photos He gathered together a network of
experts who applied to the photos the most
sophisticated digital image processing available
What they found was more than a face They
found what may be the remains of an entire civi
lisation
These experts are not your garden-variety
UFO fanatics, Hoagland received the Angstrom
Medal far excellence in science in 1993 and. in
addition to working far NASA, has been a sci
ence museum curator and science consultant to
CBS news and Walter Cronkite. Other* include
I> Mark Car lotto a PhD from Carnegie Mellon
University and the author of more than 40 peer
reviewed paper* on image processing, and Stan
iev McDaniel, professor emeritus ami past
department chairman at Sonoma State University.
5k> what has this got to do with structures on
the moon and Martian ancestors? Hoaginnd was
the person who organized the press conference
on March 21 He is also the author of the book
The Monuments of Mars A City on the Edge of
Forever " In his book, Hoagiand detailed the
network's investigation of the photos. At the
end. he speculated about the origin of the struc
tures on Mars
I he mmi plausible hypothe
sis is that the structures were
built by humanoid aliens from
outside our solar system There
isn't space here to relate the
entire argument If you're inter
ested, read hts book When it
first came out in 1965. the
"guru of space." Carl Sagan,
pooh-poohed it. Hut in the fat*
of mounting evident*. Sagan
has been bock pedaling as fast
»* «e can. so maybe the University will get a
copy of the book one of these day*.
Huagland's hypothesis suggests the possibility
(fiat “colonists'' from Mars might come to Earth,
but that for several reasons they would most
likely establish a colony on the moon first
Hence there may he structures on the moon.
It would be easy to dismiss this entire subject
except for two points. Tl»e first is that NASA, in
the fate of mounting pressure, has decided to
extensively photograph the areas identified by
Huagtand (et al.) with the Mart mission that
will be launched later this year. The second
point is consideration of what might happen if
we actually did find the ruins of an ancient civi
lization on the moon or on Mars.
On Dec 14. 1960. the Brookings Institution
delivered a report to NASA that said. “Discov
ery of life on other worlds could cause the
earth's civilizations to collapse " This report is
cited as one possible reason why NASA contin
ues to dismiss the possibility of an ancient civi
lization on Mars even as they plan to
photograph it.
When you consider the sparks that fly
between creationists and evolutionists, it's no
wonder NASA would be concerned Imagine
what would happen if there were tangible proof
that human intelligence is not native to earth,
but an import
All of this is still speculation, but if you want
to dig a bit deeper l suggest you read Hoagland s
book and check out the following web sites
http /www artbell.com/srt/huagland html
http:/WWW planetarymysteries.com
hurry Haftl. a senior mafaring in foumatum. is a
columnist far th« Emerald