President Kennedy addressed the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1961 and included these words in his speech.
"
The
program to be presented to this assembly - for general and complete
disarmament under effective international control - moves to bridge the
gap between those who insist on a gradual approach and those who talk
only of the final and total achievement. It would create machinery to
keep the peace as it destroys the machinery of war. It would proceed
through balanced and safeguarded stages designed to give no state a
military advantage over another. It would place the final responsibility
for verification and control where it belongs, not with the big powers
alone, not with one's adversary or one's self, but in an international
organization within the framework of the United Nations. It would assure
that indispensable condition of disarmament - true inspection - and
apply it in stages proportionate to the stage of disarmament. It would
cover delivery systems as well as weapons. It would ultimately halt
their production as well as their testing, their transfer as well as
their possession. It would achieve under the eyes of an international
disarmament organization, a steady reduction in force, both nuclear and
conventional, until it has abolished all armies and all weapons except
those needed for internal order and a new United Nations Peace Force.
And it starts that process now, today, even as the talks begin. In
short, general and complete disarmament must no longer be a slogan, used
to resist the first steps. It is no longer to be a goal without means
of achieving it, without means of verifying its progress, without means
of keeping the peace. It is now a realistic plan, and a test - a test of
those only willing to talk and a test of those willing to act.[9] "
Sunday, September 9, 2018
The Threshold Of No Return
The human race is now proceeding through a threshold of no return. No one knows if we will survive. The catastrophe is complicated and is literally taking place as we breathe the breath of life each day. It involves massive pollution of our environment, over population, the existence of nuclear weapons in all the major nations of the world.
Some of these massive problems will mean a slow death of our species. One of these problems could kill us quickly and painfully.
We have always possessed the ability to control pollution but have not found the will within us to shoulder the responsibility. Our species is naturally addicted to pleasure and to a focus on the ease of the moment not on the job of securing our future for our selves and our children and their children. So we procrastinate doing the hard jobs which are essential to our survival. It would have been so much easier to "keep" the world clean than to attempt to clean up our mess after the fact.
A solution to the over population of our planet seems an even greater challenge. The Republic of China made attempts to control the growth of their population with limited success and with the interference of the state in the family unit with its natural urge to have children at their own discretion. World population is 7.6 billion. How many people can the earth support? Along with this population comes famine, plagues, wars, displacement, and a world of misery.
If a nation, an organization, or even a small group detonates a nuclear weapon on a large population for what ever reason, a nuclear war could easily occur. All the people who have carefully studied such a scenario have concluded that no one would be the victor. Everyone would be the looser...the whole human race. Under the wrong circumstances this could occur. There have been numerous close calls with nuclear weapons but none so close as October 1962 when the political officer of Soviet submarine B-59, Vasili Arkhipov cast a "no" vote to launch a nuclear torpedo at a US Aircraft carrier the USS Randolph. Had the torpedo been launched a nuclear exchange with Russia would have occurred.
No nuclear weapons should even exist! The nations of the world should have totally outlawed their existence long ago.
Mean while most national governments of the world are certainly not focused on solutions to these problems. There have been times in the past when some feeble attempts were made to address some of these issues. Those windows are not open at this moment.
Solutions could be found! However we must first focus on the problems.
Some of these massive problems will mean a slow death of our species. One of these problems could kill us quickly and painfully.
We have always possessed the ability to control pollution but have not found the will within us to shoulder the responsibility. Our species is naturally addicted to pleasure and to a focus on the ease of the moment not on the job of securing our future for our selves and our children and their children. So we procrastinate doing the hard jobs which are essential to our survival. It would have been so much easier to "keep" the world clean than to attempt to clean up our mess after the fact.
A solution to the over population of our planet seems an even greater challenge. The Republic of China made attempts to control the growth of their population with limited success and with the interference of the state in the family unit with its natural urge to have children at their own discretion. World population is 7.6 billion. How many people can the earth support? Along with this population comes famine, plagues, wars, displacement, and a world of misery.
If a nation, an organization, or even a small group detonates a nuclear weapon on a large population for what ever reason, a nuclear war could easily occur. All the people who have carefully studied such a scenario have concluded that no one would be the victor. Everyone would be the looser...the whole human race. Under the wrong circumstances this could occur. There have been numerous close calls with nuclear weapons but none so close as October 1962 when the political officer of Soviet submarine B-59, Vasili Arkhipov cast a "no" vote to launch a nuclear torpedo at a US Aircraft carrier the USS Randolph. Had the torpedo been launched a nuclear exchange with Russia would have occurred.
No nuclear weapons should even exist! The nations of the world should have totally outlawed their existence long ago.
Mean while most national governments of the world are certainly not focused on solutions to these problems. There have been times in the past when some feeble attempts were made to address some of these issues. Those windows are not open at this moment.
Solutions could be found! However we must first focus on the problems.
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