nuclear war will be inevitable unless …
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Nuclear War will be inevitable unless …. Frank Boulton Medact Conference 9 th November 2013. Humankind under stress. Climate change – raining in the wrong places Global population growth Obesity epidemic Excessive use of inappropriate energy sources - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Nuclear War will be inevitable unless …..
Frank Boulton
Medact Conference
9th November 2013
Humankind under stress
• Climate change – raining in the wrong places
• Global population growth– Obesity epidemic
• Excessive use of inappropriate energy sources– Oil price rises and effects on developing world health
• Excessive water consumption
• Crisis from gross economic mismanagement
Pressure on and mal-distribution of markets in basic resources (food, water, energy) has become unsustainable.
The resulting stress, never before so extreme, gives rise to a real risk that in a moment of irrationality or panic, a nuclear war will be started
Nuclear weapons
• Have no credible use– Useless against terrorist attacks
• Are expensive to maintain
• Thinking that possession deters is deluded– proliferation, accidents, nature of the threat
• Even if not used pose unique and long-term hazards to public health– dangers of ‘low-level radiation’ misrepresented
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
• Entered into force in 1970
• Non-nuclear Weapons States have the right to develop nuclear power for peaceful purposes
• Nuclear Weapons States are committed to disarm COMPLETELY ‘in good faith’.
Nuclear weapons modernisation
• Actively pursued by all NWS
• Missile Defense (to make nuclear war ‘winnable’)
• Trident replacement
• European scenario
Link with conventional weapon disarmament
• Although Obama is ‘committed’ to a nuclear-weapon free world, US conventional forces – already by far the most powerful – are expanding
• This is causing an imbalance – e.g. possible withdrawal of China from ‘no first use of NW’
• Negotiations for conventional weapons disarmament are also essential
(Oxford Research Group Nov 2013)
Solutions – interdependence and positive feed-back phenomenon
• Good public health
• Education
• Rebalance the global economy – eliminate greed, fear and corruption
• Achieve more equal but diverse societies
• Improve resources (low-carbon) and their distribution
• Relieve population pressures
• Remove the causes of war
International Activists
• IPPNW
• PNND
• ICAN– Oslo and Mexico governmental conferences
• UNGA
UNGA
• UN High Level Conference on Nuclear Disarmament in 2018 – to review and advance the process, and – establish 26 September as the International
Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons.
• 129 countries voted in favour