CAMPAIGN FOR NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT CND

ECOCIDE - After World War Two, a new crime was created on the international statute books, called Genocide. Since then there has been no World War Three, but humans, have created the Anthropocene Age, where governments and powerful corporations are destroying the planet environmentally. We are therefore keen to see the Rome Statute amended to create a crime to recognise and seek to prevent ruthless profiteering and exploitation, such that this irresponsible plundering of our natural resources might be prosecuted by the International Criminal Court.

Every penny of the proposed £205 billion spend that the UK government has earmarked for replacing Trident is money that could be spent on combating the climate emergency: it could pay to install solar panels in every home or build enough wind turbines to power all households in the UK. With energy to spare.

For example, Canada does not have a nuclear fleet. They spend elsewhere. Misdirecting public resources costs money and lives.

As we saw in 2019, the floods across England and Wales caused huge disruption to the lives of thousands of people and councils have had to spend vast amounts on shoring up flood defences. Part of the reason the UK found itself so woefully underprepared for the floods is linked to the fact that the UK’s environment agency, tasked with preparing for such events, has seen its budget cut by 50% since 2010. While the government has now pledged to double the amount it invests in the flood defence programme in England to £5.2 billion over the next six years, this is significantly less than the cost of running Trident over the same period.

Going forward, the costs of the climate emergency will be monumental. Extreme weather will become a more regular occurrence with the government having to spend vast amounts on rebuilding. There are already up to 40 million people worldwide who have been forced to leave their homes and seek refuge elsewhere as a result of climate change and further inaction will see this number, and the resulting pressure on those states still habitable, increase.

Nuclear’s carbon footprint

Trident uses massive energy and resources in research, production, operation, dismantling and eventual waste storage, never mind the environmental catastrophe that would be created if it was ever deployed. This is in addition to the environmental devastation wreaked by decades of uranium mining, nuclear testing and nuclear waste dumping.

A particularly disturbing example of the intersection between climate change and nuclear development can be found in the Marshall Islands. On Runit Island there is a Dome – known locally as The Tomb – containing more than 3.1 million cubic feet of US-produced radioactive soil and debris, including lethal amounts of plutonium which will soon be submerged by rising sea levels, releasing radioactive waste into the ocean.

WORLD MAP - These are the countries that brought about a change in the law. The United Nations is an international organization that tries to persuade its members to do the right thing. Many of them are breaking the law. They are the ecocidal maniacs, that could destabilize the planet, if nothing is done to stop them. The best way of changing policy is to target those who might lead us to war, and reward politicians who are aiming for peace. Peace will only come about when each country respects the borders of others. The enablers are food security, energy security, currency stability and international trade using zero carbon transport. Once that is achieved, we need zero carbon factories and homes.

NIL VISION = NOTHING - The Labour government under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, and the Conservative government under David Cameron, Theresa May and Boris Johnson had no defined clean energy policy, or way of achieving their ambitions under the Climate Change Act 1998. Not a clue. This has been so since 1997 - a twenty-five year sustainability void. In 2021 going into 2022, the Tory cabinet is still countenancing, new oil fields, coal mines, and nuclear power stations. In other words, business as usual. What they should have done was push for wind and solar renewables like there was no tomorrow - and a supporting infrastructure with load levelling energy storage for EVs, perhaps based on, or at least including green hydrogen in the mix. They should also have included sustainable housing, as a bedrock, to ease borrowing and encourage creative entrepreneurs.

They could have done that with policies and statute, if they'd concentrated on home economics and balancing the books. Instead of self promotion and profiteering from fossil fuels and nuclear stop gaps. We would then have a zero emission society, not reliant on energy imports. With significant export potential of hydrogen and renewables technology.

Dr. Kate Hudson has been General Secretary of CND since September 2010. Prior to this she served as the organisation's Chair from 2003. She is a leading anti-nuclear and anti-war campaigner nationally and internationally.

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IS IT SAFE? - In our view, nuclear power in any form, can never be safe. Under international law, nuclear proliferation is illegal. In view of the ultimate danger storing radioactive waste presents to future generations, we consider that any administration that encourages, endorses or otherwise employs atomic fission from enriched uranium or any derivative thereof for any purpose, should be considered an Eco Nazi - and liable to the full force the law - to include confiscation of assets - to help pay for cleaning up the mess they have created for mankind.

And surely, he's heard that it is illegal to proliferate nuclear weapons, yet he has done a deal with Australia and the USA. Perhaps that should be referred to the International Criminal Court?