From the Editor

By Metta Spencer | 2019-04-01 12:00:00

Greta Thunberg, a sixteen-year-old Swedish girl, is trying to save the world. Adults mock each other for doing so.(“Oh, he’s trying to save the world!” is a nasty put-down.) But no one mocks Greta or the millions of angry kids marching and saying that we have twelve years left, if we’re lucky.

The twelve-year deadline is the IPCC’s estimate, and that’s only about climate change. Some other threats are equally dangerous, especially nuclear weapons. Read what three experts say on pages 8-15 about the nuclear war risks. The INF Treaty is kaput, so the New START and NPT will die too. And North Korea’s Kim is already getting ready to restart.

But what can be done in just 12 years? Reducing emissions is no longer enough. Let’s plant a trillion fast-growing trees, for starters. Divert money from militarism to the SDGs. Demand that all states, including the US and Russia, sign the TPNW.

“Wake up! The house is on fire!” says Greta. So what to do? Well, let’s march! And if you can’t walk far, then talk a lot to people who can. Tell the pizza delivery guy about nukes. Or invite the neighbors in for coffee and collect their signatures. Share Peace Magazine with your colleagues and watch some videos with them. Phone one MP per day and make a fuss at the all-candidates’ meetings before the election. Visit your bank manager and complain if it’s a bank that funds nuclear weapons components or fossil fuel industries. (There are several lists of banks and corporations.) Lie down in front of an armoured personnel carrier that Canada made for the Saudis .

Some of you are going to New York to the NPT prepcom. If so, call Erika Simpson. Some of you may join “Korea Peace Now: Women Mobilizing to End War.” Contact Sen. Marilou McPhedran or Lois Wilson to learn more about this new group after you read Lois’s article on page 16.

Listen to our podcasts on the subway or while walking your dog. Watch our video conversation with Jill Carr-Harris (see p. 30), who is planning a march from Delhi to Geneva, starting on Oct. 2, Gandhi’s 150th birthday. That will take a year, and they’ll talk to everyone about the SDGs, nonviolence, and nuclear disarmament. You may want to walk part of the distance with them. See their website . We’ll be publicizing that march. And when the kids march in the streets next time, join them. We have a world to save!

Peace Magazine Apr-Jun 2019

Peace Magazine Apr-Jun 2019, page 4. Some rights reserved.

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