Opinions

In this article renewable energy activist, Alice Slater, points out the dangers of the world advancing in the proliferation of nuclear energy and calls on all countries to join the International Renewable Energy Agency as a way to make redundant article IV of the Non-proliferation Treaty “inalienable right” to nuclear energy.

The tired old mantra of arms control and incremental steps is still dominating discussions at the NPT Review Conference, despite the growing push for a Nuclear Weapons Convention. Calls by Nuclear Weapons States, for the most part, lack any sense of real urgency — even though it is clear that meaningful action for abolition is needed now, and cannot continue to be postponed.

Here in this small Andean nation of 10 million people, the glaciers are melting, threatening the water supply of the largest urban area in the country, El Alto and La Paz, with 3.5 million people living at altitudes over 10,000 feet. I flew from El Alto International, the world’s highest commercial airport, to the city of Cochabamba.

Now that nuclear arsenals reduction is much in the news, the US and Russia have agreed to downsize their stockpiles by 30% and 22 Arab countries called for a nuke-free world, it’s time to ask how many countries have decided to eliminate the threat of a devastating nuclear war and consequently managed to liberate themselves from the most atrocious weapons of mass destruction.

The victory of the right in last elections in Chile has stirred reflections on the crisis of the left. Of the 15 countries in Europe that had leftist governments in 1992, only 5 do today, and of these 3
-Portugal, Spain, and Greece- presently find themselves in grave financial and social difficulty. For people under 50 it is hard to grasp how deep the roots of this crisis go.

China has come under fire for its use of the death penalty – and for failing to publish official figures on capital punishment. Amnesty International has produced an annual report criticizing Beijing, and urging the government to be more transparent. Fewer people were executed in 2009 than in previous years, according to the document.

**Support for nuclear disarmament has spread to the heart of the Atlantic alliance and beyond.**

Obama’s call for a nuclear-weapons-free world in Prague unleashed a great outpouring of support from international allies and grassroots activists demanding a process to actually eliminate nuclear weapons. One recent and unexpected initiative has come from America’s NATO allies.

We often in the peace movement are in a reactive mode. But in order to successfully achieve our goals of ending war we have to flip the switch and become more proactive and force those in power to be reacting to us. Unless we begin to have a strategic discussion within the peace community then this will not likely happen.

In my country the state is ruled by those who have fallen into the traps of delusion and mediocrity, in a world that has reduced human rights into gruesome figures and statistics of politics and economy. The very sacredness of life and liberty has become an elusive and quite expensive concern. Human rights has become a privilege for a few at the expense of a broad humanity.

Journalist Luis Ammann points out that 2010 may be the tensest year in Argentine-British relations since the 1982 war and the Argentine government must demonstrate the temper necessary to place its actions in a non-violent framework. Recently, the United Kingdom unilaterally authorized the search for petroleum in the islands’ undersea platform.