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ARE WE HEADED FOR EARLY EXTINCTION?

Talk by Larry Ross to Auckland Human Rights Day, December 10, 2003

Dr Dorothy Rowe, an Australian psychologist author of Living With The Bomb and head of clinical psychology at St John's Hospital Lincoln said:

"99.9% of species that once inhabited this planet are now extinct, and I can see no scientific reason why the human race shouldn't become one more"

She said a major reason is that we don't face up to modern day threats and do enough to alter our behaviour to ensure survival. She and others call this phenomenon
"denial". We pretend the problem does not exist, or that we can do nothing and our politicians and military leaders will look after it.

Ask yourself, what have we done, or governments done to change traditional behaviour enough to cope with and solve this major problem? Very little. In fact a case can be made that we are running toward disaster.
Extinction occurs mainly because our environment changes, and species
do not change and adapt. We have greatly changed our environment with our destructive tools - nuclear weapons. There has been a quantum leap in our ability to destroy our environment and ourselves.

We look in the mirror and see the enemy. It is us. 99.9% of species continue the behaviour that leads toward their own extinction. The fundamental difference between them and us is that we have a brain which tells us the probable results if we keep repeating our destructive behaviour. The other species lack this unique ability we call intelligence.

Man's unique intelligence means we can analyse the situation and consider the past, present and future projections. That allows us to take precautions and make changes and take account of the risks, if we wish.
Have we done that? No. We are using our brains to deny and pretend that there is no risk, that it is too small to worry about, that all our nuclear leaders are rational, moral, good Christian believers, and that their way of warfare and more warfare is the answer and the only way against the "axis of evil". They say, "You are either with us or against us". We believe them and do their bidding, just as the Germans believed and followed Hitler. He almost succeeded in conquering the world. He did not even have nuclear weapons.

However George Bush has nuclear weapons and the will and doctrines to use them. He also believes, as a Christian Fundamentalist that God is on his side against the "axis of evil". Bush believes that if his actions result in a nuclear holocaust this would god in the Bible promise the nuclear Armageddon. So if it is God's will, it can't be wrong or bad to good Christian believers. Non-believers and other religions don't matter. We can't oppose god's divine will as predicted in holy scripture. Although there has been thousands of gods, holy scriptures and supposedly divine instructions for man, the good Christian, like George Bush, knows for a fact that his god is the only, and true god. As he was elected President, even if self-elected as many believe, of the most powerful nation on earth, he must be right. Or so the public are taught.

Unfortunately, that kind of nonsense reasoning and justification is how we are using our brains. Not to adapt to our perilous situation, but to run towards disaster. The very big question today is whether enough of us can see where we are going and act to reverse this process.

The situation today is well illustrated by this 20 year old chart of dots in squares.
The dot in the centre represents all the firepower of World War II. We have enough for about World War Two 5,000 times over.
The dots in one of the 100 squares in the diagram represent the firepower needed to kill all life on earth and end our world. So once unleashed, and perhaps escalating out of control, there is enough nuclear firepower to kill all life on earth 100 times over. Add to that the chemical, biological and conventional firepower and you have to conclude that we have created more than enough to bring about our own extinction.

How are we adapting to this perilous situation? Are we working hard extra hard for disarmament, and making some sacrifice for this goal?

No, we constantly accentuating the perilous situation. We are making more and different nuclear devices, and spending billions to dominate space and thereby conduct wars more efficiently all over the planet.
The arms race, mainly with ourselves and the phantom threats we invent, is the major occupation of our brains and resources today.
Rather than work extra hard at disarmament, the world's greatest superpower, the US,
is withdrawing from international disarmament treaties. It intends to start testing again, has withdrawn from the ABM treaty, and warned it may withdraw from other treaties.

Always the US uses "the war on terror" as its excuse. But mass bombings, invasions and wars tend to make more terrorists - not deter them. Threatening other states
with nuclear weapons under the guise of "war on terror" is just a crazy deception.
Suicidal terrorists are ready for death and unlikely to be deterred by nuclear threats.
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The US has lowered the barriers against the use of these devices. Nuclear weapons are no longer treated as weapons of last resort because of their colossal destructive power, but as weapons that can be used if conventional arms do not accomplish their military objectives.

In other words the whole global effort at nuclear disarmament, and all the hard won treaties to control the bomb, are being consigned to the scrap heap.

All the warnings about accidental war, war due to computer error,
war due to miscalculation are discarded by the neo-conservative cabal
in Washington, now running US policy.

They had an agenda for war with Iraq, even before Bush was elected. Then the plan is to repeat the successful formula - the lies and justifications - and attack other ME nations like Syria and Iran.
The Bush Administration used the 9/11 attacks to justify middle-east wars starting with Iraq.
They invented many lies to justify an illegal war on Iraq. This included mass bombing and invasion and killing and maiming thousands.
In spite of all the lies to con their fellow politicians and the public into supporting this war, they found no WMD "ready to launch in 45 minutes" as Tony Blair claimed,
no evidence of links to al-Qaeda; no evidence of terrorism against neighbouring states of the UK or US and others, and no evidence of links to the 9/11 attacks.

Yet US either repeats the big lies, or disregards the fact that it has made them and been exposed. Bush and his allies, Blair and Howard carry on as usual and portray all their international crimes as perfectly normal and justified. John Howard of Australia is a very good example of business as usual - basking in the light of George Bush lies and preparing for Australia to pay out billions of dollars for space war preparations. He calls it missile defence against so-called "rogue states"
As Hitler taught "the bigger the lies the more people will believe it"
I find it quite staggering and maddening when I see such huge potential for the advancement of the human race if we approached our problems rationally and in peace.
Yet the US and their "coalition of the willing" are happy to lead their countries into more wars as detailed in their agenda.
Iran, Syria, North Korea, China, Russia and others have been named as potential targets.
Israel in alliance with the USA and supported with some 3 billion US dollars every years, is closely working with the US on the plan to dominate the ME, demonize Arab & Muslim states, demonize Arafat and create the climate for more attacks and wars.
Israel's attack on Syria with US approval is a good example.
Its also using its massive nuclear arsenal to enforce its will by force and expand its territory into Palestine with continuing Israeli settlements, destruction of Palestine houses and farms, and building a great wall on Palestine territory which has just been condemned by the UN.

It is this US/Israeli plan and wars, with the help of UK, Australia and other states
that creates an increasing number of so-called terrorists. And the theft of resources such as Iraq's oil, creates bitterness, hatred and resistance. The US and UK and Australia label any resistance as terrorism in order to get public support for more war.

So this is how the US makes a self-fulfilling prophecy. The more wars and repression,
expansion and invasion by Israel and the US's "coalition of the willing" the more terrorism or resistance will result. That in turn is used by the US and Israel, and labelled terrorism to justify their own increase in military efforts to achieve their objectives. So far this system seems to be working well for the US and Israel. A majority of their populations believe and support them, just as a majority believed and supported Hitler.

To return to my main point, we have radically altered our environment in so many ways - from weather, to exhausting natural resources, from pollution to deforestation and global warming

But the biggest change we have made is in the quantum leap we have made in our ability to destroy ourselves. From a huge destructive effort of WWII, which is only one dot now, we can do this 5000 times over in a few hours. Another big change is in our psychological and social climate. The techniques of mass persuasion and population thought control has advanced a lot since Hitler's day. We have been conditioned to live with and accept nuclear weapons as a normal component of the environment. We have been conditioned to believe and follow our leaders even when
they lie and we know it. The population has been conditioned to follow their great leaders - no matter where - or to what- they may lead. To question is to be disloyal and to oppose Bush is to be anti-American.
Also, they have been told that the cold war is over and there is no longer any nuclear danger between the Russians and the USA. Therefor our nuclear-free laws are a relic of the past we are told and should be scrapped. Some of our politicians solemnly repeat this and call for scrapping the laws. Carefully, as if fixed in time, they skirt the issues of today; how the US has lied flagrantly to go to war; how they have threatened to use nuclear weapons; how they have withdrawn from nuclear disarmament treaties and how they threaten more wars, and the meaning of the new nuclear doctrines licensing themselves to use nuclear weapons of mass destruction unilaterally, even against non-nuclear states.

So we are not adapting to this huge change in our environment. We are not really acting to oppose the destructive trends.

For example: How many people have written a letter to the paper or to Helen Clark supporting New Zealand's nuclear-free policies?
Passively, we are going in the opposite direction, leading toward nuclear catastrophe.

What Can We Do?

Start thinking and questioning about the issues; lobby politicians to keep NZ nuclear free (one small step but better than becoming part of the nuclear war infrastructure, which some of our politicians want. Speak to these politicians on why to keep NZ nuclear-free.
Study, act and think and perhaps we can harness the wonderful creative faculties we have and overcome this looming problem
Pick up one of our forms if you wish to help or donate to this campaign.
Or, sign our volunteer forms and you will be periodically informed and contacted.
Thanks