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Rolla Peace News

August 7, 2018
Dear Friends:

Note from webperson: If you are having trouble reading this, it is posted at

http://tomsager.org/Peaceletters/peaceletter080718.html

          In this newsletter is:

1. NOON VIGIL FOR PEACE: THURSDAY, AUGUST 9, 2018
2. THE MISFIT MATHEMATICIAN (Tom's column, http://tomsager.org)
          a) Elections
          b) How War Destroys Our Climate
          c) California Sets Another Fire Record
          d) The Lombok Earthquake
          e) Treaty To Prohibit Nuclear Weapons: I Spoke Too Soon
          f) Is The Friend Of My Best Friend's Enemy's Friend My Friend Or My Enemy?

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1. NOON VIGIL FOR PEACE: THURSDAY, AUGUST 9, 2018

We vigil for peace in front of the Rolla Post Office THIS THURSDAY, AUGUST 9, FROM NOON TO 1:00 PM (and most subsequent Thursdays until peace is established). Please try to join us. The temperature is predicted to be near 90. If you do not feel comfortable standing with us in front of the Post Office, please consider driving by and showing your support for our message by honking your horn and flashing a peace sign.

2. THE MISFIT MATHEMATICIAN (Tom's column, http://tomsager.org)
          a) Elections
          b) How War Destroys Our Climate
          c) California Sets Another Fire Record
          d) The Lombok Earthquake
          e) Treaty To Prohibit Nuclear Weapons: I Spoke Too Soon
          f) Is The Friend Of My Best Friend's Enemy's Friend My Friend Or My Enemy?

ELECTIONS

Today is election day — and I hope you all voted.

Me? I voted. I'd like to have voted for Peace; but she wasn't on my ballot. There wasn't even a line where I could write her name in. I'd like to have voted to repeal Climate Change. That wasn't on my ballot either. What kind of election is that? War and Climate Change: the two greatest existential threats to humanity and neither one is on the ballot.

Instead my mailbox has been inundated with flyers from candidates who say they love guns and life. I suspect the irony is lost on them. Guns take lives — lots of them — tens of thousands.

In response to the paragraph I wrote three weeks ago on election meddling:
“Oh, incidentally, have you ever contributed to a candidate in some other state or district? for example, Tammy Duckworth, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez or Elizabeth Warren. If so, you have meddled in an election. The voters in Massachusetts are supposed to choose their senator — not residents of Missouri.”
A reader writes:
“I disagree with you that by contributing to an out-of-state senator (like Elizabeth Warren to whom I have contributed) is meddling in an election. It is simply supporting a candidate in another state. And no one except the candidate and her staff knows you have contributed.

“If you could somehow vote for a candidate in another state or in some other way influence the election in another state, that would be meddling in an election.”

Well, I've contributed to out-of-state politicians too. Was I meddling? I think so. Money = Votes; and big Money = lots of Votes. If it didn't, I wouldn't be getting all these requests for money from politicians thousands of miles away whom I've never even heard of before.

Sorry, I don't have the resources to meddle on the grand scale of the NRA or the Israeli lobby. Maybe that's why politicians seem to like Guns more than Peace. Maybe that's why politicians seem to like Israel more than the United States.

So far no one, to my knowledge, has accused Russia of buying the election, just hacking and leaking stuff that should have been public anyway.

I may write about how to get money out of the electoral process and make elections fairer later.

HOW WAR DESTROYS OUR CLIMATE
“The most eco-friendly thing you can do is be anti-war.” —Katherine Ball
The cause and effect relationship between War and Climate Change has been a recurrent theme in my writings; so I was very happy to see Stacy Bannerman's article on this relationship on Common Dreams.

Climate activists tend to ignore the military contribution to climate change. Indeed as Bannerman writes:
“How do you clear a room of climate activists? Start talking about war. It’s not just environmentalists that leave; it’s pretty much everyone.”
That says it in a nutshell. Militarism, and the US military in particular is the single largest contributor to climate change, but few will even talk about it.

We can divide the military's contribution to Climate Change into three broad categories.
1. Lost Opportunity

The quantity of resources spent on militarism represents a lost opportunity to use these resources to combat climate change. SIPRI estimates the world spent over $1.7 Trillion on its militaries in 2017. This is a very conservative estimate and is almost certain to rise in subsequent years. Well over 1/3 of this is spent by one single country — the United States.

The cost of the War against Iraq alone is measured in trillions and could have financed the shift from fossil fuels to non-polluting renewables for the entire world.

But its not only money. Many of our best and brightest end up working for the military-industrial complex. They could be working to reduce or reverse climate change instead.

2. The Sheer Size of the US Military

Consider not only the US military but all the contractors and industries that feed the military. Consider the network of well over 100 foreign military bases. Consider the parts of the US military hidden away in other agencies like the CIA, Homeland Security, Veterans Administration, and the Department of Energy. Consider also the vast amounts of military hardware that the US sells or gives away to other nations.

Congress just passed a $717 Billion military budget authorization for FY 2019; but if you factor in all the extras, it's probably closer to 1.5 Trillion.

These tremendous military expenditures feed an arms race in which other nations also increase their military spending

3. The Environmental Cost of Military Operations

Every airplane, tank, bomb or missile has an environmental cost. The fuel efficiency of some of these vehicles are measured in gallons per mile, not miles per gallon. All spew greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Every bomb exploded also spews out its load of greenhouse gases, along with the destruction it causes.

The US military burns an estimated 144 million barrels of petroleum annually and generates an estimated 70% of our nations greenhouse gases.
This short article is not meant to be inclusive. Can you think of other points that should be added?

The bottom line: If the world learned to get along and stop spending on their militaries; it would free up more than enough resources to convert the entire world energy supply to non-polluting renewables with plenty left over for reforestation and other activities that reduce our carbon footprint. Seems we humans would rather fight each other; even if it kills us all.

CALIFOIRNIA SETS ANOTHER FIRE RECORD
“The earth seemed unearthly. We are accustomed to look upon the shackled form of a conquered monster, but there—there you could look at a thing monstrous and free. It was unearthly.” —Joseph Conrad (Heart of Darkness, 1898)
Last December the Thomas Fire set a record for the most acres burned by any California fire on the books. The record was short lived. Eight months later, the Mendocino Complex Fire has outdone the Thomas Fire and it's still burning out of control. We're seeing climate related records fall almost as fast as they are set.

Donald Trump, with his typical disdain for facts, claimed the fire was a result of California State water policy. Sure, Donald, Global Warming is still a Chinese hoax. Right?

THE LOMBOK EARTHQUAKE
“And this stillness of life did not in the least resemble a peace. It was the stillness of an implacable force brooding over an inscrutable intention. It looked at you with a vengeful aspect.” —Joseph Conrad (Heart of Darkness, 1898)
The Earth is astir. Volcanoes in Guatemala and Hawaii. Earthquakes in Indonesia, The 6.9 Lombok earthquake just killed 105. Does this have anything to do with human induced climate change? You bet it does. What we do to the surface of the Earth and the atmosphere reverberates deep in the bowels of the Earth. If you don't believe this, read Bill McGuire's “Waking the Giant: How a changing climate triggers earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanoes.” Or you can watch this 14 minute video I put together instead.

TREATY TO PROHIBIT NUCLEAR WEAPONS: I SPOKE TO SOON

Last week I reported that in July three countries ratified the Treaty to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons. The number should have been four. On July 31, New Zealand also ratified the treaty. Lets hear a loud hip, hip, hooray for New Zealand!

IS THE FRIEND OF MY BEST FRIEND'S ENEMY'S FRIEND MY FRIEND OR MY ENEMY?

We've been supporting Saudi Arabia in their brutal, inhumane war against the Yemenis. Now, it turns out, we have, at least indirectly, also been supporting Saudi Arabia's good friend: al Qaeda on the Arabian Peninsula. Think about this one! After 9/11, we set about to destroy al-Qaeda. 17 years and Trillions of dollars later, we are helping them. Such are the fortunes of War!

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Rolla Peace News is distributed by email once a week on Tuesday evenings (except on rare occasions) and is posted on the web at http://tomsager.org (click on Grassroots Rolla: near the top of rightmost column).

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If you want to be added to this list, let me know.

Wage peace,

Helen
helenm (at) fidnet.com

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