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Nuclear War will be inevitable unless …..

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

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Nuclear War will be inevitable unless …..

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  1. Nuclear War will be inevitable unless ….. Frank Boulton Medact Conference 9th November 2013

  2. 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

  3. 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

  4. 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

  5. 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’.

  6. Nuclear weapons modernisation • Actively pursued by all NWS • Missile Defense (to make nuclear war ‘winnable’) • Trident replacement • European scenario

  7. 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)

  8. 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

  9. International Activists • IPPNW • PNND • ICAN • Oslo and Mexico governmental conferences • UNGA

  10. 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

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