Demand a break through at the Durban Climate Conference
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It is clear with the evidence before our eyes that our climatic systems are breaking down due to the build up of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and that they are breaking down quicker than anticipated by computer models. Within the last 2 years every country or major landmass on the planet has experienced record-breaking extreme weather events.
The time has now come to recognise that there are no technological fixes that simultaneously provide the carbon reductions and allow the business as usual scenario of continued economic growth. As such, the only way that the necessary carbon reductions can be achieved is through international cooperation and agreement to make mutually agreed cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. Making these cuts will require sacrifice, especially amongst the richest nations and those nations that have aspirations to achieve rapid industrial growth.
The cooperation needed for these sacrifices will require discipline and trust on a scale that the planet has never experienced before.
In these dire circumstances, the replacement of Trident is wholly incompatible with the struggle to build the necessary international trust required for climate change solutions.
Trident replacement sends two important messages to the rest of the world.
Firstly, it says that the protection of our national status is more important than international cooperation. It sends this message at a time when every single attempt to reach international agreement on climate change has broken down.
Secondly, the replacement of Trident says to the world that we are not prepared to cooperate in the development of a zero carbon economy as the building, maintenance, operation and defence of Trident requires an energy hungry and carbon intensive military industrial complex, which in turn needs a large fossil fuel based economy to provide finance. Also any country that perceives themselves to be threatened by Trident, will have to respond by building up their own defenses thus preventing them from developing a zero carbon economy.
If we cannot find ways to cooperate, then we must accept the dire consequences of competition. The problems of peak oil and climate change will be further exacerbated and they will combine together so that the world economy diminishes in size year on year. This will lead to the weakening of all individual nation states and the increasing of international tensions.
In these circumstances a stalemate situation can not be tolerated by a weaker nation and they will be forced to make a first strike, with the real potential of this leading to nuclear conflict.
We therefore demand the following actions to be taken at the Durban Climate Conference (19th November 2011)
- That the United Nations Permanent 5 member states (USA, France, China, UK and Russia) all commit to total, immediate and verifiable nuclear weapon disarmament
- That those nation states that are also nuclear armed (Pakistan, India, Israel, North Korea, Iran) also commit to total and immediate nuclear weapon disarmament
- That an immediate moratorium is imposed on weapon sales to any nation that refuses to commit to decarbonisationing their economy.
- That all nations must commit to the fair distribution of critical resources through the concepts of either carbon taxation or carbon rationing
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