nuclear-news

Financial vested interests in nuclear weapons and war

No more bombs’ says anti-nuclear advocate Smart Planet By Lieu Thi Pham | December 15, 2011, MELBOURNE 

“…… Smart Planet: What can we do to get closer to achieving a global treaty on nuclear disarmament?

Tim Wright : We need to look at financial vested interests in maintaining nuclear weapons. Governments spend about US$105 billion every year on maintaining and modernising their nuclear forces. Much of this goes to private enterprises. We need to discourage banks and other financial institutions from investing in companies that are involved in such work. Divestment is something that anyone can work on — encouraging people to invest their superannuation in funds that refuse to support nuclear weapons production. People can also take part in our Bombs No More community campaign, transforming images of nuclear bombs into something peaceful. We call it citizen disarmament.

SP: What’s next for ICAN?

TW: We hope that negotiations on the treaty to ban nuclear weapons will begin in the next few years. Most governments feel the time has come for this to happen. Early next year we plan to publish a list of 300 banks in 30 countries that provide loans to nuclear weapons producers. We are also about to employ four campaigners in the Middle East to help build support for a nuclear-free zone there.

Nuclear weapons facts:

• The total destructive capacity of all nuclear weapons in the world is equivalent to 150,000 Hiroshima-sized bombs.
• Four countries have done away with their nuclear weapons altogether — South Africa, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine.
• 185 countries have made a legal undertaking never to acquire nuclear weapons.
• Russia and the United States possess 95% of all nuclear weapons; the rest are owned by seven countries — the UK, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea. Iran is suspected of seeking nuclear weapons.
• Australia had a nuclear weapons program in 1960s but it abandoned that when the Non-Proliferation Treaty was being negotiated.
• The US spends US$61 billion on its nuclear weapons every year. http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/global-observer/-8216no-more-bombs-says-anti-nuclear-advocate/1225

December 17, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, weapons and war