Defending the climate while preparing the end of the world

In early October, Italy hosted the preparatory meeting of the UN Climate Change Conference, currently underway in Glasgow. Two weeks later, Italy hosted another international event which, unlike the first widely advertised one, passed over in silence by the government: the NATO nuclear warfare exercise Steadfast Noon in the skies of Northern and Central Italy. The air forces of 14 NATO countries took part in it for seven days under US command with fighter-bombers in a dual nuclear and conventional capacity located in Aviano and Ghedi bases.
  The 31^st US Squadron is permanently deployed in Aviano with F-16C / D fighter-bombers and B61 nuclear bombs. In Ghedi, the 6^th Wing of the Italian Air Force with Tornado PA-200 fighter-bomber and B61 nuclear bombs. The Federation of American Scientists confirmed in 2021 that “the Italian Air Force is assigned nuclear attack missions with US bombs, kept in Italy under the control of the US Air Force, whose use in war must be authorized by the President of the United States”. Aviano and Ghedi bases have been refurbished to accommodate F-35A fighters armed with the new B61-12 nuclear bombs. Last October the final test was carried out in Nevada releasing inert B61-12s from two F-35A fighters. Soon the new nuclear bombs will arrive in Italy: 30 Italian F-35A fighters can be deployed at the Ghedi base alone, ready to attack under US command with 60 B61-12 nuclear bombs.
  A week after participating in the nuclear war exercise, Italy participated in the UN Conference on Climate Change, chaired by the United Kingdom in partnership with Italy. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned that “there is a minute to midnight and we need to act now” against global warming that is destroying the planet. In this way, he instrumentally used the symbolic Apocalypse Clock, which actually marks how many minutes we are from nuclear midnight. Boris Johnson himself a few months ago, in March, announced the enhancement of British nuclear attack submarines:  Astute (price 2.2 billion dollars each), armed with US nuclear cruise missiles Tomahawk IV with a range of 1,500 km, and the Vanguards armed with 16 US Trident D5 ballistic missiles with a range of 12,000 km, equipped with over 120 nuclear warheads. The latter will soon be replaced by the even more powerful Dreadnought-class submarines. The British nuclear attack submarines, which cross deep along the coasts of Russia, now also sail along the coasts of China starting from Australia to whom the US and Great Britain will supply nuclear submarines. Great Britain, which hosts the Conference to Save the Planet from Global Warming, is thus contributing to the arms race leading the world towards nuclear catastrophe.
  Against this background, the promotional video of the Conference is misleading: The Dinosaur, symbol of an extinct species, warning from the United Nations podium humans to save their species from global warming. In fact, scientific studies confirmed, dinosaurs became extinct not for warming, but cooling of the Earth after the impact of a huge meteorite, which obscured the sun by raising clouds of dust. Exactly what would happen after a nuclear war: in addition to catastrophic destruction and radioactive fallout on the entire planet, it would cause in urban and forest areas huge fires that would emit a blanket of sooty smoke into the atmosphere obscuring the sun. This would lead to climate-cooling lasting also for years: the nuclear winter. Consequently, most of the plant and animal species would extinct with devastating effects on agriculture too. Cold and malnutrition would reduce the survival capacity of the few survivors, leading the human species to extinction.

Source: il manifesto of 2 November 2021

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km. It is almost a truism that wars and their preparation do not contribute to climate protection. It is all the more astonishing that the politicians, military leaders and the military-industrial complex responsible for armament and war policy remain silent about this nexus.
  Gabriele Krone-Schmalz, the German television journalist and book author (see also the article “Ice Age with Russia?”), is one of the few prominent voices who publicly calls for making the great task of climate protection an important motivation for not continuing the spiral of escalation in international relations, but for switching to détente and cooperation; for climate protection is impossible without international cooperation between equal states - this is actually also a truism.
  So far, it is mainly the peace movement that is trying to draw attention to the connections. “Peace improves the climate”, for example, is the slogan – with lots of additional material – of the German Civil Peace Service (ZFD). “War and the military are climate killers number one,” says also the chairman of “Naturefriends Germany”. “An aspect of rearmament and military activity that has been neglected for a long time lies in the massive environmental destruction caused by wars worldwide,” writes Klaus Moegling, author of the book “Neuordnung. Eine friedliche und nachhaltige Welt ist (noch) möglich” (Neuordnung. A peaceful and sustainable world is (still) possible).
  By all accounts, however, the World Climate Conference that ended last weekend did not discuss this topic – how could it, given that the signs are still pointing to international confrontation between the USA and its allies with Russia and China? Instead, the absence of the presidents of these two countries was used as an opportunity for renewed reproaches. This is not an outlook. Instead, a shift in course is called for. Manlio Dinucci from Italy makes it clear what is at stake otherwise. But perhaps it is a silver lining on the horizon that there has now been a joint declaration by China and the USA on climate protection (see box).
  Whether this will actually lead to more cooperation and more peace remains to be seen.  •