April 21, 2017

The ongoing tension between the U.S. and Russia over NATO’s expansion to the Baltic and Black Seas -and Russia’s strategic countermeasures in the Crimea, the Ukraine, Syria, and to a lesser extent Iran- is reminiscent of the powder keg that was Europe just prior to World War I -you know, the war to end all wars. Add to that the dispute over the South China Sea, the East China Sea and the technical state of war that still exists between North and South Korea backed by their respective covert and overt allies, China and the U.S., and what we have is an extraordinarily high probability that the struggle for global preeminence -for that is what it really is- will spiral into a terminal war. Viewed in that context, climate change is indeed immaterial: there won’t be future generations to suffer its consequences.

The risk to the species’ survival stems from one word: nuclear. The bombs -the U.S. and Russia both have approximately 7,000- would envelop the world in a radioactive cocoon and cause a nuclear winter; and should the ever-growing number of nuclear-powered vessels be sunk, they would become de facto Fukushimas at the bottom of the ocean. No chance for life as we know it.

The elites who run the nuclear-armed states and their close allies -not to be confused with ordinary people, who would rather live out their lives in peace- refuse to destroy and outlaw these weapons; yet at the same time, they seek to prevent their proliferation. Talk about a double standard.

Fortunately the rest of mankind has coalesced into a movement to eliminate these weapons, before they eliminate us all. And it is being done nicely, peacefully, diplomatically. But if that fails, what are they to do -withdraw en masse from the Non Proliferation Treaty?