By World BEYOND War, November 9, 2022
Wars are raging and the climate is collapsing. Is there something that can be done to address both problems at once? Watch this webinar with Dr. Elizabeth G. Boulton, Tristan Sykes (Just Collapse), and David Swanson, with Liz Remmerswaal Hughes moderating, to hear some new ideas.
Text of David Swanson’s remarks is here.
Here are some articles you can read from Elizabeth Boulton:
- What happens if the climate and ecological crisis is framed as a national threat? Six Insights.
- Climate Change Isn’t a Threat Multiplier. It’s the Main Threat.
- Applying war theory to the hyperthreat of climate and environmental change.
While Boulton recommends shifting resources to counter the Hyperthreat of climate collapse, governments are doing the opposite. One piece of the puzzle is their omission of military pollution from climate agreements. Here is a demand we’re making at the COP27 conference underway in Egypt at the time of this webinar.
Learn about Just Collapse at https://justcollapse.org
Dr. Elizabeth G. Boulton’s Doctoral research explored why humanity was not responding to climate and environmental issues with the same energy and intensity applied to other alleged crises or threats, like the ‘Global Financial Crisis’ or the flawed intelligence about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. She found it relates to power underpinned by deeply entrenched ideas about how we perceive threat and danger. She developed alternate conceptual approaches to threat – the notion that climate and environmental crisis constitutes a ‘hyperthreat’ (a new form of violence, killing, harm and destruction), and the idea of ‘entangled security’ whereby planetary, human, and state security are inherently inter-connected. Her PLAN E is the world’s first climate and ecologically centred security strategy. It offers a framework for mobilisation and rapid action to contain the hyperthreat. Her professional background is almost equally divided between work in emergency logistics (as an Australian Army Officer and within the humanitarian sector in Africa) and in the climate science and policy sector. She is an independent researcher, and her website is: https://destinationsafeearth.com
Tristan Sykes is co-founder of Just Collapse – an activist platform dedicated to justice in face of inevitable and irreversible global collapse. He is a long-time social justice, environment, and truth activist, having founded Extinction Rebellion and Occupy in Tasmania, and coordinated Free Assange Australia.
David Swanson is an author, activist, journalist, and radio host. He is executive director of WorldBeyondWar.org and campaign coordinator for RootsAction.org. Swanson’s books include War Is A Lie. He blogs at DavidSwanson.org and WarIsACrime.org. He hosts Talk World Radio. He is a Nobel Peace Prize nominee, and U.S. Peace Prize recipient. Longer bio and photos and videos here. Follow him on Twitter: @davidcnswanson and FaceBook
Liz Remmerswaal is Vice President of the Board of Directors of World BEYOND War, and national coordinator for WBW Aotearoa/New Zealand. She is a former Vice President of the NZ Womens’ International League for Peace and Freedom and win 2017 won the Sonja Davies Peace Award, enabling her to study peace literacy with the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation in California. She is a member of the NZ Peace Foundation’s International Affairs and Disarmament committee and co-convenor of the Pacific Peace Network. Liz runs a radio show called ‘Peace Witness’, works with the CODEPINK ‘China is not our enemy’ campaign and is instrumental in planting peace poles all around her district.
2 Responses
superb panel, great presentations and Q&A and nice to get anti-war/anti-settler colonial voices from Australia and New Zealand. but it wasn’t clear to me but does Liz Boulton, or Dr. Boulton would she advocate in a world where we abolish the military, does she not believe the military can be used or should be used to fight climate change because not only are the militaries mainly of the west the biggest offenders when it comes to climate change but also does she feel that military is inherently anti-democratic and therefore the response to climate change needs to be a people bottom up response to climate change?
and from what I gathered listening to Tristan that him its there is no real green solution to the climate crisis and we’re past the point of no return. and given the findings of Planet of the Humans, given that much of the big Green groups don’t address militarism, how we consume meat and other foods, and I remember watching Democracy Now and an Environmentalist told Amy Goodman that scientists are even self-censoring their findings that there’s no fixing this crisis and we’re past the point of no return, do we then just continue to fight for a semi-green transition and abolishing militarism in the hopes this gives the earth’s/species’ lifespan a few more years or decade if possible?
I felt really glad that I bumped into this presentation. One thing that was not mentioned that feels vitally important is heavily reducing the population by having less babies. Somehow making this mandatory. This would give earth a big sigh of relief.