Nuclear Weapons Ban & Boycotts, Divestment & Sanctions (BDS)
To Save World From Nuclear, Poverty & Climate Threats
By Dr Gideon Polya
11 August, 2014
Countercurrents.org
Our world is acutely threatened by nuclear weapons, poverty and man climate change. A comprehensive Nuclear Weapons Ban is needed to avoid an accidental full-scale nuclear catastrophe and a consequent Nuclear Winter that will wipe out most of Humanity and the Biosphere. Every person must stand up for Humanity and the Biosphere in the One Percenter War on Terra.
This week saw the 69th anniversary of the war criminal American nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 August and 9 August, respectively, in 1945. The previous week saw the death at 93 of the last crew member of the US bomber Enola Gay that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima [1]. In America 's war criminal nuclear bombing of Japan up to 166,000 were killed in Hiroshima and up to 80,000 perished in Nagasaki . These utterly unjustified, war criminal attacks were militarily unnecessary, evidently simply “proof of principle”, and strategically a US warning to other nations (notably the USSR) of America's ability, preparedness and resolve to repeatedly commit mass murder.
After their defeat in 1945 the Germans adopted a CAAAA (C4A) protocol of Cessation of killing, Acknowledgment of the crimes, Apology and Amends for the crimes, and Assertion ”never again to anyone”. However in the US Alliance there is still considerable approval for this nuclear holocaust and mass murder of up to 250,000 people, mostly civilians in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki . The CAAAA (C4A) protocol of Cessation of killing, Acknowledgment of the crimes, Apology and Amends for the crimes, and Assertion “never again to anyone” is unknown to Americans and the American killing continues, albeit non-nuclear killing, with no Acknowledgement, Amends, Apology or Assertion of “never again to anyone”.
History ignored yields history repeated. Thus mostly civilian deaths from violence or violently-imposed deprivation total 40 million (post-1950 US Asian Wars), 4.6 million (the continuing Iraqi Genocide, 1990-), 5.5 million (the continuing Afghan Genocide, 2001-), 12 million (continuing US War on Muslims, 1990-) , 10 million (continuing US War on Terror, 2001-) and 2 million (continuing Palestine Genocide, 1936-) [2-4]. In August 2014 Australian-targetted US drones are killing Muslims from Somalia to Pakistan . In US- , UK- and Australia-backed, nuclear terrorist, democracy-by-genocide, neo-Nazi Apartheid Israel's latest Gaza Massacre in the Gaza Concentration Camp, 2,000 Palestinians (80% civilians and including about 500 children) have been killed, 10,000 have been wounded, 450,000 have been driven from their homes, 250,000 have been made homeless and 1.8 million (half children) have been variously traumatized from shelling and bombing in reprisals for zero (0) Israeli deaths from Gaza rockets in the previous year and 28 in the previous 14 year i.e. 2 per year as compared to 134 Israelis being murdered by fellow Israelis each year [5]. Nobel Peace Laureate Obama has sent nearly 1,000 US troops (advisers and security personnel) back to Iraq and has now promised an indefinite US bombing campaign in Iraq and Syria .
Back in 2007 when he was President of the prestigious American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the present senior advisor to President Barack Obama on science and technology issues, Professor John Holdren, identified nuclear weapons, poverty and climate change as 3 key threats to humanity. As reported by AAAS: “Challenges such as poverty, climate change and nuclear proliferation pose global risks that require scientists and engineers to join with political and business leaders in a concerted search for solutions, AAAS President John P. Holdren said Thursday. In his Presidential Address at the AAAS Annual Meeting, Holdren described a world poised at an unprecedented moment of decision: Without swift and urgent action, he said, the problems could spiral toward disastrous, permanent changes for all of life on Earth” [6].
Unfortunately the “swift and urgent action” recommended by Professor John Holdren is simply not happening, leaving the world at risk as outlined below.
1. Nuclear Weapons. A nuclear exchange would wipe out most of Humanity (current population about 7 billion) , successively through the initial instantaneous destruction of cities, subsequent deaths from burns and radiation sickness from radioactive fallout, and finally through a “Nuclear Winter” decimating agriculture, photosynthesis and photosynthate-based life in general. While imposing deadly Sanctions on Iran (that has zero nuclear weapons and repeatedly states that it does not want nuclear weapons and wants a nuclear weapons-free Middle East), the US (7,315 nuclear weapons) is boosting its nuclear and conventional forces in Asia and Australia and continues to pour billions of dollars of military aid into the war criminal, genocidally racist, ethnic cleansing and nuclear terrorist rogue state of Apartheid Israel that reportedly has up to 400 nuclear weapons. The upper estimates of stored nuclear weapons are as follows: US (7,315), Russia (8,000), Apartheid Israel (400), France (300), UK (250), China (250), Pakistan (120), India (100), and North Korea (less than 10). India , Pakistan and North Korea have not ratified the Nuclear non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) [7]. Nuclear exchanges have almost occurred accidentally several times in the last half century [8] and in several instances have only been averted by the sane actions of particular courageous and humane individuals e.g. Commander Vasili Alexandrovich Arkhipov (1962) and Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov (1983) [9].
2. Poverty. UN Population Division data indicate that about 17 million people already die avoidably each year from deprivation in Developing Countries (minus China ) on a Spaceship Earth with Neocon American and Zionist Imperialist One Percenters in charge of the flight deck. 9 years ago global avoidable deaths totaled 16 million per year [4]. In Iran alone about 100,000 Iranians die avoidably each year under cruel US-imposed Sanctions. The Sanctions applied to Iraq from 1990 to 2003 killed an estimated 1.7 million people, 1.1 million being under-5 year old infants [10]. 1950-2005 avoidable deaths from deprivation have totalled 1.3 million for the world, 1.2 billion for the Developing Word and 0.6 billion for the Muslim world, these estimates being consonant with 1950-2005 under-5 infant deaths totalling 0.88 billion for the world, 0.85 billion for the Developing World and 0.4 billion for the Muslim World [4].
3. Climate Change. In 2009 the WBGU, which advises the German Government on climate change, estimated that for a 75% chance of avoiding a catastrophic 2C temperature rise, the world must emit no more than 600 billion tonnes carbon dioxide (CO2) before zero emissions in 2050. Unfortunately the global greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution is so high that the World will exceed this terminal budget in 4 years relative to 2014 [11]. The Global Warming Potential (GWP) of CH4 on a 20 year time frame and with aerosol impacts considered is 105 times that of CO2. The 50 Gt (50 billion tonnes) of CH4 predicted to be released from the East Siberian Arctic Shelf in coming decades [12] is equivalent to 50 billion tonnes CH4 x 105 tonnes CO2-equivalent/tonne CH4 = 5,250 tonnes CO2-e or about nine (9) times more than the world's terminal greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution budget. The world faces catastrophe unless global warming and this Arctic CH4 release can be stopped [9]. Unaddressed man-made climate change is set to exacerbate an already worsening climate genocide and cause 10 billion avoidable deaths this century [13].
Scientists have solutions to all of these 3 major threats facing humanity but politicians – notably those representing the One Percenters who own about half of the world's wealth – are preventing the required actions in all 3 areas that are summarized below.
1. Nuclear Weapons. Complete nuclear disarmament in accordance with a Nuclear Weapons Ban is technically possible. About 50 countries support a complete Nuclear Weapons ban [8, 14] and this is also supported by the Red Cross, the Red Crescent, the World Council of Churches and the International Trade Union Confederation. However a Nuclear Weapons Ban is opposed by nuclear-armed countries and their compliant lackeys. Thus, for example, while Australia has no actual nuclear weapons of its own, it has hosted nuclear tests and testing of nuclear weapons delivery systems, hosts nuclear armed war ships, plays a key role in US nuclear terrorism through its Pine Gap joint US-Australian communications facility, and under the present pro-war, pro-Zionist, US lackey Coalition Government slavishly supports US and Israeli war policies and is doing its best to oppose a Nuclear Weapons Ban. Thus the Sydney Morning Herald reported (2014): “ In October 2013, according to the documents released under freedom-of-information law, Australia refused a request by New Zealand to endorse a 125-nation joint statement at the United Nations highlighting the humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons.'' Australia objected to a sentence declaring that it is in the interest of humanity that nuclear weapons are never used again, ''under any circumstances''. A group of 16 nations, including Indonesia , Malaysia , Mexico , South Africa and New Zealand , have been working to highlight the humanitarian effects of nuclear weapons. That diplomatic campaign is intended to lay the ground for negotiation of a convention that would prohibit nuclear weapons - putting them in the same category as chemical and biological weapons, which are already prohibited under international law… declassified documents have revealed that the government's primary concern is that a nuclear weapons ban would ''cut across'' Australia's reliance on US nuclear deterrence” [15].
2. Poverty. Notwithstanding the expansion of ostensible democracy and social welfare in the 20th century, the world's wealth is overwhelmingly concentrated the hands of the rich. Thus, according to Oxfam “[Its] report, Working for the Few, shows that the wealth of the world is divided in two: almost half going to the richest one per cent; the other half to the remaining 99 per cent” . French economist Professor Thomas Piketty argues in his important book “Capital in the Twenty-First Century” that current wealth inequality endangers democracy and economic sustainability, and he proposes a progressive annual wealth tax to address the danger. There is a largely ignored Global Avoidable Mortality Holocaust in which currently 17 million people die avoidably each year from deprivation and deprivation-exacerbated disease in the Developing World (minus China). This is happening on Spaceship Earth with the flight deck under the control of the 10% richest who have about 90% of the wealth of the World and who in turn are controlled by One Percenters who own about half the wealth of the World. An annual global wealth tax of about 4% would yield US$16 trillion annually and enable raising all countries to annual per capita incomes equivalent to the $6,000 per person per year of China and Cuba, countries for which annual avoidable mortality is zero (0) [4, 16, 17].
3. Climate Change. Basically we know what the problem is (man-made greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution ) and how to solve it (stop and reverse GHG pollution). Fundamentally, as enunciated by 300.org, we need to urgently reduce atmospheric CO2 concentration from the current dangerous and damaging 400 ppm CO2 to about 300 ppm for a safe planet for all peoples and all species. To achieve a safe atmosphere we must achieve the following: ( 1) change of societal philosophy to one of scientific risk management and biological sustainability with complete cessation of species extinctions and zero tolerance for lying; (2) urgent reduction of atmospheric CO 2 to a safe level of about 300 ppm as recommended by leading climate and biological scientists; and (3) a rapid switch to the best non-carbon and renewable energy (solar, wind, geothermal, wave, tide and hydro options that are currently roughly the same market price as coal burning-based power) and to energy efficiency, public transport, needs-based production, re-afforestation and return of carbon as biochar to soils or bicarbonate to oceans coupled with correspondingly rapid cessation of fossil fuel burning, deforestation, methanogenic livestock production and population growth [9].
Unfortunately, the Western democracies have become Murdochracies, Lobbyocracies and Corporatocracies in which the Big Money of the dominant One Percenters buys people, presstitutes, politicians, policies, parties, preferment, public perception of reality, votes and political power. The young must revolt (peacefully, of course) to secure their future and have 3 main avenues for action on all these 3 major threats to Humanity, specifically (1) massive peaceful demonstration in the streets under the banner “Save our future”; (2) at the ballot box where they must vote 1 Green and consign the corrupt lackeys of the One Percenters and Ten Percenters to the sewer of History; and (3) through Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against the terracidal One Percenters and all those people, politicians, parties, presstitutes, companies, corporations and countries whose actions are threatening Humanity and the Biosphere.
No doubt the One Percenters will move to take over any political mass movement of the more than 50% of Humanity who are under 30 and so the Young (and those who love and care for the Young) must act in ways that are independent of such manipulation, The Young should eschew the lying Mainstream media [18] and adopt the sound advice from the 1960s of “Don't trust anyone over 30”. The Young should adopt an ABC strategy for individual action that has been extremely effective for political and religious movements from Catholicism to Communism, namely:
(1) Accountability (hold the One Percenters and their lackeys responsible by Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) and by vocal exposure);
(2) Badge (wear a badge summarizing the key goals e.g. “Nuclear Weapons Ban”, “4% wealth tax” , “300 ppm CO2”; I wear 2 badges everywhere I go saying “Free Palestine” and “300 ppm CO2”); and
(3) Credo (have a snappy one sentence to quickly explain your badges(s) to someone in a lift or a check-out queue, e.g. re Nuclear weapons, “To save the world from inevitable nuclear annihilation we need a Nuclear Weapons Ban now”; re Poverty, “A 4% annual global wealth tax can give every country a Cuban-style minimal annual per capita income and potentially halt the annual global avoidable mortality holocaust that kills 17 million annually through First World-imposed deprivation”; and re Climate change, “For a safe and sustainable future for all peoples and all species we must urgently return atmospheric CO2 concentration back to the pre-Industrial Revolution 300 ppm CO2 from the present dangerous and damaging 400 ppm CO2”.
Of course, many other strategies are possible. Thus in relation to the horrifying threat of mass extinction from nuclear weapons one can be more specific about the targets of Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) that obviously should apply to all nuclear weapons-possessing countries:
1. “Small” nuclear powers like the UK, France, Apartheid Israel and North Korea are most likely to be pressured successfully by carrot or stick and should be particularly subject to Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) as were successfully applied to neo-Nazi Apartheid Israel-backed, neo-Nazi Apartheid South Africa and is now being applied world-wide to the world's only remaining Apartheid state, nuclear terrorist, neo-Nazi Apartheid Israel,
2. Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) should also be applied against the numerous countries that (a) host US bases, (b) host US nuclear weapons, (c) host nuclear-armed warships, or (d) host nuclear terrorism-related communications facilities . Thus when a US nuclear-armed warship is in an Australian port, Australia is effectively hosting US nuclear weapons and making Australia a nuclear target, as well as hosting a US Marine base in Darwin, hosting nuclear-armed warships in general, and hosting joint US-Australian nuclear terrorism-related communications facilities such as that at Pine Gap in Central Australia.
3. Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) should also be applied against all countries that refuse to join the present 50 nations who support the Nuclear Weapons Ban.
If you survive the 50 kilometer hydrogen bomb immediate kill zone, horrendous global food crises, or climate change-related weather catastrophes, what will you tell your children and grandchildren when they ask “What did you do in the War on Terra?” Act now before it is too late.
References.
[1]. “Theodore Van Kirk, last crew member of Enola Gay, dies in US aged 93”, The Guardian, 30 July 2014: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/29/enola-gay-atomic-bomb-crew-van-kirk-dies-93#comments .
[2]. “Muslim Holocaust Muslim Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/muslimholocaustmuslimgenocide/ .
[3]. “Palestinian Genocide””: https://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/
[4]. Gideon Polya, “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950”, that includes n avoidable mortality-related a history of every country since Neolithic times and is now available for free perusal on the web: http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com/ .
[5]. Gideon Polya, “ Mike Carlton, top Australian columnist, forced from job for criticizing Apartheid Israeli Gaza Massacre”, Countercurrents, 08 August, 2014: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya080814.htm .
[6]. AAAS quoted in Gideon Polya, “New Year's Resolutions: speak out to save Democracy, Humanity & Biosphere from greedy One Percenter Corporatocracy”, Countercurrents, 03 January, 2013: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya030113.htm .
[7]. “List of states with nuclear weapons”, Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_states_with_nuclear_weapons .
[8]. Fred Mendelsohn, “Working to abolish nuclear weapons” , ABC Radio National Ockham's Razor, 10 August 2014: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/ockhamsrazor/working-to-abolish-nuclear-weapons/5650138 .
[9]. “Are we doomed?”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/are-we-doomed .
[10]. “Iraqi Holocaust, Iraqi Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/iraqiholocaustiraqigenocide/geneva-convention .
[11]. Gideon Polya, “ Doha climate change inaction. Only 5 years left to act”, MWC News, 9 December 2012: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/23373-gideonpolya-climate-change.html .
[12]. Gail Whiteman, Chris Hope and Peter Wadhams, “Vast costs of Arctic change”, Nature, 499, 25 July 2013: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v499/n7459/pdf/499401a.pdf .
[13]. “Climate Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/climategenocide/ .
[14]. “International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons: (ICAN): http://www.icanw.org/why-a-ban/positions/ .
[15]. Philip Dorling, “Australian diplomats frustrated nuclear weapons ban”, Sydney Morning Herald, 10 March 2014: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/australian-diplomats-frustrated-nuclear-weapons-ban-20140309-34fgg.html .
[16]. Gideon Polya, “ 4 % Annual Global Wealth Tax to stop the 17 million deaths annually ”, Countercurrents, 27 June 2014: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya270614.htm .
[17[. Gideon Polya, “Key Book Review: “Capital In The Twenty-First Century” By Thomas Piketty”, Countercurrents, 01 July, 2014: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya010714.htm .
[18]. “Mainstream Media Lying”: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammedialying/ .
Dr Gideon Polya has been teaching science students at a major Australian university for 4 decades. He published some 130 works in a 5 decade scientific career, most recently a huge pharmacological reference text "Biochemical Targets of Plant Bioactive Compounds" (CRC Press/Taylor & Francis, New York & London , 2003). He has published “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950” (G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 2007: http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com/ ); see also his contributions “Australian complicity in Iraq mass mortality” in “Lies, Deep Fries & Statistics” (edited by Robyn Williams, ABC Books, Sydney, 2007: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/science/ockham/stories/s1445960.htm ) and “Ongoing Palestinian Genocide” in “The Plight of the Palestinians (edited by William Cook, Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2010: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html ). He has published a revised and updated 2008 version of his 1998 book “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History” (see: http://janeaustenand.blogspot.com/ ) as biofuel-, globalization- and climate-driven global food price increases threaten a greater famine catastrophe than the man-made famine in British-ruled India that killed 6-7 million Indians in the “forgotten” World War 2 Bengal Famine (see recent BBC broadcast involving Dr Polya, Economics Nobel Laureate Professor Amartya Sen and others: http://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/history/social-economic-history/listen-the-bengal-famine ). When words fail one can say it in pictures - for images of Gideon Polya's huge paintings for the Planet, Peace, Mother and Child see: http://sites.google.com/site/artforpeaceplanetmotherchild/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/gideonpolya/ .
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