Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament : Nuclear war, conventional war and climate change are linked

Herald Scotland, By Lynn Jamieson, 2nd November

Peace and environmental issues are now firmly on the radar of many people who have never thought of themselves as members of a peace or environmental movement.

Vladimir Putin’s conduct towards Ukraine has heightened awareness of the threat of nuclear annihilation.

If the war has distracted attention from the other existential threat – human-induced climate change and mass extinctions – regular bleak news from environmental scientists and the recent drenching from Storm Babet causes a refocus.

Tragic events in Israel and Gaza raise new fears of war, reminding us that ‘violence begets violence’ even when innocent civilians are in the firing line.

It’s clear that the triple threats of war, nuclear war, and climate change are inextricably linked. Action to defuse this unholy trinity can most effectively be shaped through an understanding of the way in which they interplay.

Beyond the obvious common threat of our extinction, the three threats can share similar causes and chronic injustices…………………………………….

…………………………………………………………The doctrine of ‘nuclear deterrence’ starts from a presumption that ‘our defence’ involves the suicidal right to end the world for half the planet. That would be the consequence of a UK nuclear-armed submarine launching its weapons.

If enabling the nuclear states to divest from that arrogance seems like an unattainable mirage, remember that a network of civil society organisations, ICAN, working with key governments like our neighbour Ireland, nevertheless managed to deliver the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

This treaty is slowly but surely undermining the legitimacy of nuclear weapons and making it harder for financial institutions to invest in anything connected with them.

By 2024 it is expected that more than half of all sovereign states will be openly declaring the unacceptability of the world being held on the trigger point of nuclear death.

Resources that could be spent on nuclear weapons are surely better channelled toward measures for mitigating climate change.

Meanwhile, the Festival for Survival in Glasgow this Saturday, puts a sharp focus on the twin existential threats of nuclear war and the environmental catastrophe of climate change and loss of biodiversity. The many themed workshops include a session on the current situation in the Middle East. The gathering, hosted by the Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in cooperation with several organisations aligned with the environmental movement, is open to all citizens of the planet who care about our continued peaceful and sustainable existence……………………………………………………………………..Festival for Survival, November 4, 10.30-16.45 at the Renfield Centre & Adelaide Baptist Church, 260 Bath Street Glasgow G2 4JP. See festivalforsurvival.com.

more https://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/viewpoint/23894555.cnd-nuclear-war-conventional-war-climate-change-linked/?fbclid=IwAR35HFEl-jF5C3K3HksBzvH2Z7SWeuUsI66Wwzdsjrg4jNNDUpg1zUIvU8U #nuclear #antinuclear #nuclearfree #NoNukes