Articles 
YET AGAIN, THE SURVIVAL OF CIVILISATION AND OF HUMANS AS A SPECIES WILL NOT BE PART OF AN ELECTION CAMPAIGN.
For yet once more, assuming an election takes place in May, (or even if it takes place earlier), the possibility of the end of civilisation and/or of humans as a species, will form no part of the election campaign. Nor will such possibilities be part of the political debate leading up to that campaign. The closest we got to that was an attempted motion in the Senate by Senator Penny Wong last year that missed out by a single vote, and the decision of the ALP National Conference a week or so later to support the Nuclear Ban Treaty. (TPNW). Both of these moves were extremely welcome. They do not by themselves constitute the kind of priority that potential extinction – level events really ought to command.
Yet this is not mere science-fiction. The likelihood of nuclear war is as great or greater now than it has ever been. The crew of nobels and nuclear weapons and climate experts who set the hands of the doomsday clock have uttered dire warnings while keeping the clock hands at 2 minutes to 'midnight' largely because the clock is running out of minutes, exactly as humanity is running out of time.
The potential end of the world, or of the world as we know it and want it to be, is, in the language of scientific data and probability analysis, very much 'on the agenda', both from nuclear weapons and from climate change. That doesn't mean it is definitely going to happen. We hope and pray and work to ensure that it will never happen. But if enough goes wrong it could happen. If we do nothing to change direction the likelihood of it happening is much greater. Constructing plausible, and even probable, end-of-the-world scenarios is depressingly easy.
But when, 30 years ago, the end of all we knew was even slightly less likely to actually take place, as the cold war entered its frightening last phase, the issue was on everyones lips. Hundreds of thousands demonstrated about it in Sydney, and a million in New York and Washington.
To listen to Parliamentary debate in Canberra, you would think the clock was at 30 minutes to midnight, not at 2 minutes. You would have a vague sense that global warming was a bit of an issue, but it would be marginal. The issue of the day (yesterday actually) seemed to be 'Franking Credits', a taxation issue so arcane one can hardly get ones head around it. The absence of political or public debate around issues of such existential significance as nukes and climate change is both scandalous and inexplicable.
Nonetheless, some parliamentarians have been concerned enough to host a meeting in Parliament House at 3.30pm on 19th Feb in Reps Committee Room 1R1, hosted by Maria Vamvakinou. It's titled 'After the Doomsday Clock and the INF Collapse – What Then?'
It will explore just what Australian Parliamentarians can do to make civilisation just a bit less likely to come to a premature end, which, it turns out, is quite a bit.
It will be addressed by Mr Alyn Ware, Global Coordinator of Parliamentarians for Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament,(PNND) and by John Hallam, Co-Convenor of the Abolition 2000 Working Group on Nuclear Risk and People for Nuclear Disarmament's UN Nuclear Disarmament Campaigner, and Australian coordinator of PNND.
Here in Sydney, the Australian Institute of International Affairs (AIIA) has hosted on its premises (though its not officially an AIIA meeting) a meeting with the same title, at Glover Cottages Kent St in the Rocks, 6.30pm, Saturday 16th Feb.
(Alyn Ware is a recipient of the Right Livelihood award, often called the 'alternative nobel'.)
Both meetings will explore the current upward spike in nuclear (war) risk, and ask what can be done to reduce it.
They may not put nuclear risks on the lips of everybody, where they should be, but hopefully they will contribute to a public debate whose most notable feature is its almost-absence. Because if we wish to make the end of everything less likely we must first of all acknowledge it, think about it, talk about it, and do something about it.
Inquiries:
John Hallam
After the Doomsday Clock and INF Treaty collapse – what next?
Parliamentary action and cooperation to reduce nuclear risks, support diplomacy and advance nuclear disarmament and climate protection
Where: Reps Committee Room 1R1
When: Tuesday 19 February 2019
Time: 3.30pm-4.30pm
Host: Maria Vamvakinou MP, Federal Member for Calwell
Introduction: John Hallam: Australian Coordinator, Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament, Co-Convenor, Abolition 2000 Working Group on Nuclear Risk Reduction.
Keynote speaker: Alyn Ware: Global Coordinator, Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament.
Consultant, International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms
Consultant, Global Renewables Congress
Laureate, Right Livelihood Award (‘Alternative Nobel Peace Prize’)
Outline: On January 24, 2019 the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists set the hands of the Doomsday Clock at 2 Minutes to Midnight due to the extreme risks to human civilization from the dual threats of nuclear weapons and climate change. The impending collapse of the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty and erosion of the JCPOA (Iran nuclear non-proliferation agreement) are just two indicators of a renewed nuclear arms race which is now consuming over US$100 billion annually – funds which could instead support renewable energy and climate protection. On the other hand, the Inter-Korean peace and denuclearisation process offers a possibility of an end to the Korean nuclear conflict, and is demonstrating that diplomacy can prevail.
Mr Ware and Mr Hallam will highlight the important role of parliamentary action, especially on a cross-party basis, to build global cooperation on effective confidence-building, nuclear-risk reduction and disarmament initiatives. Mr Ware comes to Australia following launch of the Global Renewables Congress at COP 24 in Poland, a regional conference of mayors and parliamentarians in Switzerland to address the INF Treaty and the nuclear weapons industry, and the PyeongChang Global Peace Forum in South Korea supporting the Korean peace and denuclearisation process.
Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (PNND), a global cross-party network of legislators in nuclear-armed and non-nuclear countries, works with the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), United Nations and the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly (Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe) to build such cooperation. This includes a Parliamentary Action Plan for a Nuclear-Weapon Free World based on resolutions adopted by the IPU and OSCE Parliamentary Assemblies.
Inquiries - John Hallam People for Nuclear Disarmament, Australian Coordinator Parliamentarians for Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament, 0411-854-612 This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
RSVP by Friday 15 February by email to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Penni Pappas
Office of Maria Vamvakinou MP | Federal Member for Calwell
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