Wars are not the solution to the climate emergency

By
Dr. Luis Contreras
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482

We are running out of time, trying to solve the wrong problems

Trade wars, currency wars, and military wars continue making the headlines, ignoring the most important threat in the history of the human race. Let’s fight the climate emergency before it’s too late.

Due to harmful human activity, such as poaching, civil war, logging, and habitat destruction, mountain gorillas are endangered. There are fewer than 800 left and with heat waves and severe weather, mountain gorillas may soon be extinct. The World Wildlife Federation is fighting to save the gorillas, working with governments throughout the Congo Basin, timber companies, and international lending institutions.

Due to harmful human activity, such as wars, extracting and burning fossil fuels, and massive deforestation, humans are endangered. There are more humans than mountain gorillas, but modern humans lack survival skills and survive in a narrow range of temperature. Humans are at high risk of extinction.

The Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics, which has been around since 1989, “opposes the Trump administration’s assault on the National Environmental Policy Act and other bedrock environmental laws.” NEPA is the only protection national forests have. Trump wants to eliminate NEPA to give the Forest Service unlimited power to log our forests. Please send comments to Save NEPA at www.fseee.org by August 26.

Weapons proliferation

On August 2, the U.S. withdrew from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty with Russia, to accelerate the development of new cruise and ballistic missile systems.

Its demise could open the way for a new arms race in missiles, whether nuclear or conventional, whose time to target is mere minutes. Wars are not the solution to the climate emergency.

Arkansas Military Industry

“Continued growth in Arkansas’ Aerospace and Defense industry needs a national priority like that set by President Kennedy when he challenged the nation to go to the moon,” said Gov. Hutchinson during his keynote speech at the April 2019, Mid-America Aerospace and Defense Summit. There are more than 240 weapons’ companies in the state. Arms are Arkansas’ number one export. Let’s create ethical, quality jobs for Arkansans.

Jobs for weapons

You may be surprised to know where your taxes go. The Arkansas Economic Development Commission (AEDC) creates low-wage jobs for the global weapons industry.

Case in point. Ceska Zbrojovka, a military firearms manufacturer based in the Czech Republic, is coming to a new home at the Little Rock Port Authority. AEDC announced recently, CZ will “invest” $90 million to create 565 jobs for $30 million incentives and cash payments under the Tax Back and Create Rebate programs.

Details make a bad deal much worse. CZ will own the shares and profits, lock, stock, and barrel. Arkansas gets the noise and pollution. CZ will invest $60 million for the first phase and create 357 jobs within three years. If all goes well, CZ will invest another $30 million for the second three-year phase. This is an all-around bad deal for Arkansas.

Jobs for the climate emergency

AEDC, state agencies, and universities have a new role in preparing our roads, highways, bridges, and sewers to create resilient infrastructures. Simple architectural modifications for new and existing buildings using green roofs, white structures, roof vents to release hot air, air conditioning outlets on the floor, solar panels used for shade and energy generation, and many other improvements are great solutions.

Let’s create thousands of quality full-time jobs and train communities to be prepared for life in a hot planet. Extreme floods, storms, droughts, and heat waves are coming. Homes, businesses, and roads will need reinforcements and repairs. People will need emergency rescue and shelters with food and water.

Let’s choose a better future!

John Bolton and Mike Pompeo have called for a regime change and war on Iran, and the U.S. is trying to involve Germany. Stop war with Iran and end the U.S. war machine. Please look for Action Network, World Beyond War “Germany must not join the war-making nations of the world,” and “People’s mobilization to stop the U.S. war machine and save the planet.”

Dr. Luis Contreras

12 COMMENTS

  1. Thank you, Dr. Conteras, for a terrific article! I had no idea Arkansas had that many military and weapons
    producers. I am working on a program for Ark Peace Week on the subject of using Warheads to Windmills
    to fight climate change. Can you help us? Jean Gordon

  2. The U.S. Congress will decide the rule change that would cut the heart out of the National Environmental Policy Act, which ensures public participation in land-management decisions. Here is what I sent:

    Dear Congress:

    Please consider my strong opposition to give the Forest Service a license to kill standing trees at first sight.

    Joyce Kilmer said it best, “I think that I shall never see, a poem lovely as a tree. A tree that looks at God all day and lifts her leafy arms to pray. A tree that may in Summer wear, a nest of robins in her hair; Upon whose bosom snow has lain, who intimately lives with rain. Poems are made by fools like me, but only God can make a tree.” Kilmer understood trees are not sticks in the ground waiting for a chainsaw.

    As our elected representatives, you have a unique opportunity to protect Americans. Ecological criminals like Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro clearing the Amazon Forest for logging and mining, without public opposition allowed, get away with unethical behavior. The U.S. Constitution protects our democracy from dictators. No one is safe in Brazil at this time. Protestors are thrown in jail.

    Why would Congress choose to eliminate the common-sense National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) protections for US Forest Service projects, and give FS unlimited power to harvest National Forests?

    In 2019, keeping forests standing is the “best and highest value” of the forests. We can reduce, re-use, repair, and re-cycle materials and keep every tree standing.

    Ecological perspective

    Every forest ecosystem is unique. With the new extreme weather droughts, floods, insect infestation and wildfires are rapidly changing the forests.

    The Forest Service one-rule-fits-all is obsolete. Public participation on each specific project are badly needed, even when ignored. The FS land-management plans for 2005 – 2020 were fundamentally flawed, failing to protect the forest natural values.

    Case in point: The wet Arkansas Ouachita National Forest and the dry Southern California National Forests are different ecosystems.

    1. In 1995 the Arkansas state legislature made “The Natural State” the official state name. The Ouachita National Forest is a valuable component of Arkansas. The management and preservation of this great forest provides resources for the people of the state, many recreation opportunities, revenue from tourism, and natural habitats for the plants and animals native to the area. But from 1879 to 1912 the logging industry cut most of the virgin timber in the Ouachitas. The sawmills exhausted the timber in one area and moved to another area—a process known as “cut out and get out.”

    2. Southern California National Forests
    The true value of the Angeles, Cleveland, Los Padres, and San Bernardino national forests has gone unrecognized by the Forest Service. FS regulations encourage grazing, oil and gas drilling, logging, road construction, transmission lines, off-road vehicle use, and poor fire-management.

    The climate emergency is real – please don’t cut the trees. Jair Bolsonaro shrugs as the Amazon burns – we expect better from our US Congress.

  4. There’s no goddamn emergency Henny Penny you have to be the biggest lib ass cry baby I’ve ever read on these comment sections put away your cape Superman!!!

    • Chad thank you for reading my op-ed. I am happy to reply to your comments – please be more specific and tell me what is it you disagree with.

  5. Five days ago a plane carrying U.S. troops to the Middle East landed at Shannon Airport in Ireland and caught fire, causing the whole airport to shut down.

    Such planeloads of troops, which routinely violate Irish neutrality, always carry weapons.

    Were there munitions on board? Was the foam used to put out the fire as hazardous and carcinogenic as what the U.S. military uses around the world? The people of Ireland are not permitted to know.

    Please join: U.S. Military Out of Ireland!

    https://worldbeyondwar.org/online/

  11. We have until Aug. 26 to comment on a proposed rule change that would cut the heart out of the National Environmental Policy Act, which ensures public participation in land-management decisions.

    Please tell the Trump Administration to leave NEPA be. It’s the law of the land and it has worked wonders protecting our shared natural heritage for the past half-century.

    https://www.fseee.org/take-action/save-nepa/

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