Brutish and Short

I’ve been watching atomic bombs explode on YouTube. Taking trips to Wikipedia to read about the “Multiple Independently Targetable Reentry Vehicle” (MIRV) which is a missile with multiple warheads capable of destroying numerous targets (E.g. the LGM-118 Peacekeeper missilc carries 10 warheads)—missiles that (b/t/w) place a premium on first strikes. I’ve been reading about all the times the U.S., the wealthiest country in the world, has lost a thermonuclear weapon. They’re called broken arrows, and yes it has happened  enough times for there to be a term for it-- as I recall, the government has officially owned up to misplacing about 11 nukes.  SNAFUs will happened, one will fall off a transporting boat or plane and whoops, "we can’t find it." All of this is frighteningly true. Just a Google search away, go ahead and knock yourself out. And it gets much, much worse from there. 

All of the nukes in Russia pointed at the U.S. during the Cold War are still there and vice versa. Both Russia and the U.S. have each almost launched a full-scale nuclear attack on the other country by accident. Aerial defense systems are to some degree automated after all and sometimes wires get crossed, "what the hell are you gonna do?" The point is that the very existence of these weapons systems involves risk, a priori. So as more countries join the atomic death club, there will be even more opportunities for a government to screw the proverbial pooch in a supreme way: for a safety system to fail, for a bomb to just get lost, or for a broken arrow to find its way to someone with enough madness and want to use it.  And that’s putting aside an actual conflict. 

The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists’ Doomsday clock now incorporates global warming in its warning of the threat of widespread destruction, for good reasons. Global warming, the other major threat to human survival, increases the risk of nuclear proliferation. Let me explain. The increasing extreme weather events due to global warming are straining vital resources like food and water in areas across the globe. Naturally, tensions between countries will increase because of these strains. Resource scarcity is not the only cause of armed conflict, no doubt, but it will inflame existing tensions if not creating new ones.  As tensions between governments increase, countries have an increased desire to arm themselves and this can spark arms races. More bombs means more inherent risk. As of January, the atomic scientists have moved their clock up to 5 minutes to midnight. 

All of this is madness but no one seems to notice. We have our expensive elections and the party keeps going on nicely. Yet threats to human survival are real. So far, since the invention of atomic weapons and discovery of anthropogenic climate change, governments have taken little action. Our modern forms of State Capitalism have been unable to confront the crises we face. At this point, it’s not hyperbole to say that finding some alternative is a question of life or death. To observe such problems as a individuals is pretty despair inducing I will admit. A single person can do nothing to confront an issue like nukes or global warming. These are issues that will take large numbers of highly organized and motivated people to confront—which means building communities and alternative institutions. Old-fashioned political organizing. I know these comments about organizing are clichés, and I apologize, but it's really the only way. Otherwise, the world is going to become a pretty nasty place to live.