What Public Citizens Can Do about the Y2K Crisis

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· Y2K efforts of responsible community-based organizations and networks, such as groups working to protect the environment and house and feed the poor.4. Public citizens can encourage and support public interest organizations to undertake high-priority tasks. For example, public citizens could encourage and contribute funds for:

· Credible environmental public interest organizations to evaluate risks associated with failure of date-sensitive embedded microchips at U.S. nuclear power plants and toxic-waste disposal plants.

· Public health organizations to coordinate a national evaluation of the risks associated with failure of embedded chips in 'mission critical' hospital medical devices and systems, and breakdowns of the supply chain for life-preserving pharmaceuticals. In conjunction with this effort, public citizens could hold a series of healthcare conferences in major cities with the focus on ensuring hospital services to vulnerable populations.

· Finding ways to require corporations and government entities to divulge full information about their Y2K preparedness.

· Investigative journalists to determine the state of preparedness of key infrastructure components in their localities and publicize the findings in appropriate newspapers and magazines. Public citizens might encourage a reporter to investigate the transportation and fire-fighting systems in the city where they live, for example.

5. Public Citizens can encourage investigation of the most dangerous situations in other countries and support individuals and organizations interested in helping to address those situations. In today's highly interdependent global economy, it is in the best interests of us all to help people in other countries deal with urgent Y2K issues. A high priority for the world is to ensure Y2K compliance of nuclear power plants, nuclear waste storage sites, nuclear weapons systems, and other ultrahazardous systems in countries such as Russia, Ukraine, India, and Pakistan. Public citizens can also advocate for contingency planning efforts for communities in Central and Eastern Europe and developing countries that will be in desperate need of help if more serious disruptions of infrastructure occur.

6. Public Citizens can press for much more aggressive leadership at the national level to address the Y2K problem. The president and vice president have shown some leadership on this issue. In February 1998, they established the President's Council on Year 2000 Conversion, which coordinates the federal government's efforts and assesses Y2K preparations in key infrastructure areas. More recently, they have delivered speeches on Y2K to the Academy of Sciences and issued statements in connection with National Y2K Awareness Week. They proposed recently enacted legislation to protect companies that share information about Y2K compliance.

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