Human Wrongs Watch
By John Scales Avery*
OSLO, 15 December 2016 – Today human civilization and the biosphere face two existential threats: catastrophic climate change, and thermonuclear war. Each of these disasters could cause mass extinctions, and each could make large portions of the earth permanently uninhabitable.

John Scales Avery
The hubris of oligarchic leaders in the United States is leading the world directly towards both these threats; and this is particularly true after the nightmarish 2016 November election, which brought an unstable, violence-advocating, racist, narcissistic, climate change denier to the White House.
Donald Trump’s proposed Cabinet is heavy with aggressive retired generals, and for Secretary of State, he has picked Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson.
In his campaign speeches, Trump promised that of elected, he would pull the United States out of the Paris Agreement.
As President-Elect he has said that he would end NASA’s climate research, and he has threateningly demanded a list of all scientists who worked with the Obama Administration on the issue of climate change.
Meanwhile, the Arctic is warming at a completely unprecedented rate. If the shallow polar seas become ice-free in the summers, there is a danger that the enormous amounts methane, stored on sea floors in the form of hydrate crystals, will be released into the atmosphere, triggering a feed-back loop leading to even more rapidly accelerated warming.
If Arctic warming continues, the melting of the Greenland ice sheet will produce sea level rises that will eventually drown coastal regions throughout the world.
In the long run, feedback-driven climate change could lead to a massive loss of life, comparable to the Permian-Triasic Extinction, during which 90% of all marine species and 70% of all land-based vertebrate species vanished forever.
http://www.countercurrents.org/avery020514.htm
Equally worrying are the hubristic attempts of US oligarchs to dominate the world through military force.
Both Russia and China are seen as threats to US military and economic dominance, and each of these enormous nuclear-armed countires has been surrounded by threatening rings of US bases, themselves armed with nuclear weapons.
It is doubtful that leaders of any country actually wish to initiate a catastrophic nuclear war, but when such omnicidal weapons are used as threats in the power games of governments, there is a grave danger that they will actually be used.
The documentary film maker John Pilger has recently released a film entitled “The Coming War With China”, which will hopefully make the public more aware of these dangers.
https://www.transcend.org/tms/2016/12/the-coming-war-on-china-2/
If we wish to understand how the Russians and Chinese feel when surrounded by aggressive nuclear-armed US bases on their very doorsteps, we can remember the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, when the Kennedy Administration was thrown into a panic by the fact that nuclear missiles had been brought close to the United States.
Do not the Russians feel similarly threatened by the US-supported coup in Ukraine, and by massive NATO military exercises on their borders? Does not China feel threatened by the US bases and naval buildup in the South China Sea?
https://human-wrongs-watch.net/2015/03/30/europe-must-not-be-forced-into-a-nuclear-war-with-russia/
European countries have been in the habit of blindly following US leadership. This habit dates back to World War I and especially to II, when Europe owed its deliverance from fascism to American military and economic power.
Today, however, the United States itself has a government that might be described as neofascist; and the old habit has become a very bad habit indeed. We must declare our independence. Europe must not be a vassal to Trump’s USA!
Some suggestions for further reading:
http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/12/14/trump-trumpets-his-real-plans/
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/46020.htm
http://www.ipsnews.net/author/john-scales-avery/
https://human-wrongs-watch.net/2015/03/30/europe-must-not-be-forced-into-a-nuclear-war-with-russia/
https://www.transcend.org/tms/2016/12/this-is-what-american-fascism-is-going-to-look-like/
https://human-wrongs-watch.net/2016/03/15/peace/
*Author: John Scales Avery, Ph.D., who was part of a group that shared the 1995 Nobel Peace Prize for their work in organizing the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, is a member of the TRANSCEND Network and Associate Professor Emeritus at the H.C. Ørsted Institute, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
He is chairman of both the Danish National Pugwash Group and the Danish Peace Academy and received his training in theoretical physics and theoretical chemistry at M.I.T., the University of Chicago and the University of London.
He is the author of numerous books and articles both on scientific topics and on broader social questions. His most recent book is Civilization’s Crisis in the 21st Century http://www.learndev.org/dl/Crisis21-Avery.pdf.
Don’t miss these articles by John Scales Avery in Human Wrongs Watch:
Trump Threatens the World with Climate Disaster
Gorbachev Appeals for Sanity, Dialogue
What U.S. Progressives Should Do on November 8
Human Nature: An Evolutionary Paradox
Mainstream Media Are Betraying Humanity
US Elections Cry Out for Reform!
NATO Threatens Europe With Annihilation
The Danger of Fascism in the United States
John Scales Avery – Collected Essays
Culture, Education and Human Solidarity
The United States Drifts Towards Political Irresponsibilty
Paris and the Long-Term Future
We Must Stop the Madness of Brinkmanship
Paris: A Sense of Proportions Is Urgently Needed
Book Review: Aurelio Peccei and Daisako Ikeda, “Before It Is Too Late”
The Need for a New Economic System – PART IX: a New Society, a New Social Contract, a New Way Life
The Need for a New Economic System – PART VIII: The Cooperative Movement
The Need for a New Economic System – PART VII: The Global Food Crisis
The Need for a New Economic System – PART VI: Adverse Effects of Globalization
The Need for a New Economic System – PART V: The Threats and Costs of War
The Need for a New Economic System – PART IV: Neocolonialism and Resource Wars
The Need for a New Economic System – PART II: Entropy and Economics
The Need for a New Economic System – PART I : Limits to Growth
Israel, Iran and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
Will the Real Issues Be Discussed in 2016?
New Hope for Avoiding Catastrophic Climate Change
Albert Einstein, Scientist and Pacifist
“The Path to Zero: Dialogues on Nuclear Dangers”, by Richard Falk and David Krieger
Millay’s “Epitaph for the Race of Man”
The Future of International Law (Part I)
The Future of International Law (Part II)
The Future of International Law (Part III)
Europe Must Not Be Forced Into a Nuclear War with Russia
Tactical Nuclear Weapons in Europe – The Dangers Are Very Great Today
Why Is the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons So Urgent?
Why Is the Military-Industrial Complex Sometimes Called “The Devil’s Dynamo”?
Adam Smith’s Invisible Hand Is at Our Throats
Does It Make Sense to Saw Off the Branch on Which You Are Sitting?
Blood for Oil – The Close Relationship Between Petroleum and War
2016 Human Wrongs Watch
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