Ending Our Nuclear Nightmare Fairy tales often begin with the
words, “Once upon a time….” For example, “Once upon a time there
was a beautiful princess….” In a fairy tale, the hero, perhaps a
handsome prince, may kill the dragon and rescue the princess,
and they “live happily ever after.” I want to suggest a fairy
tale in which there is a beautiful planet and the heroes and
heroines who save it are us. So, here is a fairy tale about
saving a planet in distress. Our challenge is to bring this
fairy tale to life. Once upon a time there was a beautiful and
pristine planet. It was the third planet in a remote solar
system in a vast galaxy of stars. While it might have seemed
like an ordinary planet, if anything, rather on the small side,
it was far from ordinary. It was, in fact, a very special
planet, for it had just the right climate and temperature to
support life. On this planet there were oceans and continents
and mountains and rivers, and they teemed with life. There were
broad plains with grasses that ripp