EarthAction

Doomsday Clock Moves Closer to Midnight. UN High-Level Conference Becomes More Important

Photo Credit: Basel Peace Office

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists today moved the hands of the symbolic Doomsday Clock to 2 Minutes to Midnight, indicating that the world is the closest to possible nuclear armageddon since the height of the Cold War in 1953. 

The group of experts who made the adjustment to the clock pointed to rising nuclear tensions between the U.S. and North Korea, specifically “hyperbolic rhetoric and provocative actions on both sides.”

The group, which was founded in 1945 by Manhattan Project scientists, specifically notes “the decline of U.S. leadership and a related demise of diplomacy under the Trump administration” as a global concern and a reason for this year’s leap closer to midnight.

Nuclear risk reduction measures 

Today's announcement highlights the need for nuclear risk reduction measures, such as those being advanced by U.S. Senator Ed Markey, Co-President of Parliamentarians for Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament. 

Markey has introduced legislation into the Senate (with companion legislation in the House introduced by Ted Lieu) to restrict the authority of the U.S. President to launch a nuclear attack without first consulting congress.

Markey has also organized joint congressional letters to the U.S. Secretaries of State, Defense and Energy calling on the current Nuclear Posture Review to include measures to lower nuclear threat postures, reduce the risk of nuclear weapons use, and advance the goal of the global elimination of nuclear weapons.

See Joint letter to Trump administration on reducing role of nuclear weaponsand Joint letter to the Trump administration opposing the production of new destabilizing nuclear weapons.

UN High-Level Conference

In May 2018, the United Nations General Assembly will hold the first ever High-Level Conference on Nuclear Disarmament.

In light of the increased risks of nuclear war, this conference has become even more important than when it was first proposed to the UN five years ago. World leaders participating in this event should be encouraged - and will be expected - to take action to reduce these risks and advance nuclear disarmament.

Take action: 

Call on your government to attend the UN High-Level Conference on Nuclear Disarmament at the highest level (Prime Minister, President or Foreign Minister) and to do their best at the conference to reduce nuclear risks and advance the abolition of nuclear weapons.

Click here for a sample letter and list of government contacts.

From the Basel Peace Office

The 99 Best Things That Happened in 2017

Photo Credit: Reuters/Kevin Coombs

If you’re feeling despair about the fate of humanity in the 21st century, you might want to reconsider.

In 2017, it felt like the global media picked up all of the problems, and none of the solutions. To fix that, here are 99 of the best stories from this year that you probably missed.

An incredible year for global health

1. This year, the World Health Organisation unveiled a new vaccine that’s cheap and effective enough to end cholera, one of humanity’s greatest ever killers. New York Times

2. Cancer deaths have dropped by 25% in the United States since 1991, saving more than 2 million lives. Breast cancer deaths have fallen by 39%, saving the lives of 322,600 women. Time

3. Zika all but disappeared in 2017. Cases plummeted in Latin America and the Caribbean, and most people in those places are now immune. Science Mag

4. A new report showed that the world’s assault on tropical diseases is working. A massive, five year international effort has saved millions of lives, and countries are now signing up for more. STAT

5. Soft drink sales in the United States dropped for the 12th year in a row, thanks to consumer education and new sugar taxes aimed at stemming obesity and diabetes. Reuters

6. Trachoma, the world’s leading infectious cause of blindness, was eliminated as a public health problem in Oman and Morocco, and Mexico became the first country in the Americas to eliminate it. NBC

7. Meet Sanduk Ruit and Geoff Tabin, two eye doctors responsible for helping restore sight to 4 million people in two dozen countries, including North Korea and Ethiopia. CBS

8. Premature deaths for the world’s four biggest noncommunicable diseases­ — cardiovascular, cancer, diabetes and chronic respiratory — have declined by 16% since 2000. World Bank

9. Global abortion rates have fallen from around 40 procedures per 1,000 women in the early 1990s, to 35 procedures per 1,000 women today. In the United States, abortion rates have reached their lowest level since 1973. Vox

10. In July, UNAIDS, revealed that for the first time in history, half of all people on the planet with HIV are now getting treatment, and that AIDS deaths have dropped by half since 2005. Science Mag

From Quartz.com

READ MORE

Call on the UN Security Council to Support Nuclear Disarmament at January 18 Special Session

The United Nations Council will hold a special thematic debate on January 18 on the topic of 'Weapons of Mass Destruction and Confidence Building Measures'.

The debate will be chaired by Kazakhstan President Nazarbayev, and will have a strong focus on diplomacy and trust-building as important elements to prevent proliferation of WMD and to advance disarmament.

Kazakhstan has undertaken national and regional disarmament initiatives, including relinquishing all the nuclear weapons that were on their territory and negotiating a Central Asia Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone. They have also put forward a number of disarmament proposals to the United Nations, including:

•  a call 'on all Member States, especially the Security Council's permanent members, to set a goal of ridding the world of nuclear weapons by the UN's 100th Anniversary in 2045.'
• a proposal for UNmembers to contribute 1% of their military spending to fund the Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs).

The veto power of the permanent Members (China, France, Russia, UK and USA) makes it difficult to adopt resolutions on these proposals at the Security Council.

However, support from other Security Council members on January 18 could help pave the way fora successful UN High-Level Conference on Nuclear Disarmament in May 2018, which will not be subject to such veto power.

From the UNFOLD ZERO monthly newsletter

READ MORE