7 Steps to End War & Save the Planet

By Steve Ratzlaff

A pacifists timely and passionate manifesto addressing the issue of global warming.

Utopia, as Ratzlaff explains, is not some unattainable oasis but rather a world without war and with a balanced global habitat that can sustain future generations. [R]ank and file Americans need to be able to comprehend what global warming is all about, the author writes, in order to grasp what will happen if we fail to take immediate steps to combat it. The book is not a scientific treatise bogged down with academic language, but rather a pacifists simple approach to solving one of the worlds most difficult dilemmas. Employing a minimum of hard data to explore melting ice caps, rising sea levels, changing weather patterns and ocean currents, Ratzlaff effectively illustrates the cause-and-effect relationship between human activity and the planets well-being. While Al Gore answered the hows and whys of global warming in An Inconvenient Truth, Ratzlaff illustrates the imminent need for vast governmental and political changes, and he explains the consequences of ignoring the obvious threat to our planet. The author states that one of the biggest problems with the currentapproach to global warming is the tendency of advocates to ignore the significant role of population growth. Additionally, at the roots of global warming lay nationalism, religious wars and the military-industrial complexRatzlaff outright blames governments and corporations for the current situation. After demonstrating the various successes of the United Nations in heading off global conflicts, the author concludes that the UN is the only organization capable of becoming a fully empowered international governing body. Yet handcuffed by its current structure, it can do nothing more than cast environmental resolutions that are often ignored. Unlike other books that attempt to tackle major global issues, rather than pointing out the problems and offering no solutions, Ratzlaff rounds out each of the seven steps with definitive alternatives in his If I Were President summaries.

A thorough yet easy-to-comprehend take on global warming.


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• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Apr 17, 2008
• ISBN: 9781462819416

Steve Ratzlaff

As a life-long pacifist, Steve Ratzlaff has been actively involved in issues of social justice, alternatives to war, and global warming. He spent two years teaching in rural Bolivia and has participated in a fact-finding mission to Colombia and an assignment with Christian Peacemaker Teams in Vieques, Puerto Rico. Over the past 25 years he has pastored Mennonite churches in Seattle, WA, Lincoln, NE, and Fresno, CA. He lives in Fresno with his wife, Lynette. They have two adult children.

Book preview

7 STEPS TO

END WAR

& Save

the Planet

Steve Ratzlaff

Copyright © 2008 by Steve Ratzlaff.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2007910273

ISBN: Hardcover 978-1-4363-1355-1

Softcover 978-1-4363-1354-4

eBook 9781462819416

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted

in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,

without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris Corporation

1-888-795-4274

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46775

Contents

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION

THE PLANETARY THREAT

ADOPT PACIFIST APPROACHES TO GLOBAL PROBLEMS

REDUCE DEFENSE SPENDING

REPUDIATE POWER POLITICS

RID THE WORLD OF RELIGIOUS FUNDAMENTALISM

STRENGTHEN THE

UNITED NATIONS

RECLAIM OUR DEMOCRACY

WORK FOR THE

COMMON GOOD

FINAL WORDS

ENDNOTES

DEDICATION

To Lynette, whose unwavering support made this book possible.

PREFACE

In 1971 John Lennon wrote the lyrics to Imagine, a song that asked us to imagine the world as it might be, not as it was. In it he pictured a world without religions or nations or possessions:

Imagine there’s no heaven

It’s easy if you try

No hell below us

Above us only sky

Imagine all the people

Living for today . . .

Imagine there’s no countries

It isn’t hard to do

Nothing to kill or die for

And no religion too

Imagine all the people

Living life in peace . . .

Imagine no possessions

I wonder if you can

No need for greed or hunger

A brotherhood of man

Imagine all the people

Sharing all the world . . .

You may say I’m a dreamer

But I’m not the only one

I hope someday you’ll join us

And the world will live as one1

Sometimes imagining a world as it could be is the beginning step to making it a reality. This book dares to imagine a world without war and the military-industrial complex that is so essential to its existence. Imagining such a world makes it possible to demand the changes needed to make it so. Creating a world without war will be our only hope for solving global warming—the greatest planetary threat facing this world today—for without the resources now used for war we will never be able to stop global warming.

Most books written about global warming are scholarly and scientific. That’s because it is an academic field. But rank and file Americans need to be able to comprehend what global warming is all about in order to grasp what will happen if we fail to take immediate steps to combat it. To that end, this is a layperson’s guide to the problem with enough statistics and science to understand the severity of the situation and with bold suggestions to reach that goal. Certainly, some of these steps may take some time but that is all the more reason to begin now. The alternatives have not worked. It is time for bold, outside-the-box solutions to the world’s coming climatic disaster. The goal of this book is to assist in that discussion.

If we pursue the seven steps outlined in the following pages we will be well on the way to halting global warming and saving the planet. In fact, not only will the planet be saved but the use of warfare as a means of solving global problems will become obsolete. Actions needed to help us meet these objectives are outlined in the If I Were President segments at the end of each chapter. Can we find the political will to accomplish these steps? It will take extraordinary measures. It will take personal sacrifice and perseverance. Governments and corporations making huge profits will not be easy to convince. If we fail, though, the consequences will be severe.

INTRODUCTION

Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It is an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It is a challenge. Impossible is potential.

—Muhammad Ali

Imagine a world where all creatures live in harmony with each other and with nature. A world with clean air, potable water for all, healthy oceans, vibrant forests and stable polar ice caps. A world in balance. Then, imagine a world without war! A world without weapons of mass destruction, guns for gangs or criminals and no Saturday night specials to kill loved ones in domestic disputes. A world where money that was once spent on arms and war is used instead to fight AIDS, world poverty, hunger, global warming, and the causes that lead to terrorism. Imagine a world like that! We can have a world like that or we can have the one we have now—a world filled with violence, war, hunger, disease and an environment on the brink of disaster. We still have a choice. However, we must make drastic changes quickly if we hope to change.

This world is facing a threat that could end life as we now know it and we are not equipped to handle it. We are facing a climate crisis—a planetary emergency on a scale never before seen in the recorded history of this world. Experts suggest that unless we act decisively and aggressively to lower the amount of greenhouse gases we emit into the atmosphere in the next few years, humanity may well be on the road to global ruin—decimated by our own greed and inability to cooperate with each other in the face of a common threat. There are steps that can still be taken to save this planet and bring an end to war, but first we must admit that global warming will make this planet unlivable if we don’t do something to alleviate the causes. Congress, the United Nations, and the other nations of the world must act soon to stop war and concentrate on solutions to the environmental disaster staring us in the face. It cannot be business as usual anymore. Time is short. Extraordinary measures and rational thinking are required to save this planet.

Still, there are global warming deniers in this country who, whether they really believe it or are paid by the major oil producers to deny it, spend a lot of time and energy pooh-poohing it. Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh spews his global warming denial with regularity on the nation’s airwaves. His explanation to counter experts’ warnings of rising sea levels is indicative of his lack of scientific understanding. Even if polar ice caps melted, there would be no rise in ocean levels . . . . After all, if you have a glass of water with ice cubes in it, as the ice melts, it simply turns to liquid and the water in the glass remains the same.2 Unfortunately, Rush fails to realize that most of the polar ice, particularly in Antarctica, is on land and not a huge ice cube in the southern seas. Melting of all the Antarctic ice shelves would raise sea levels 200 feet.3 Members of the Bush administration have also doctored scientific government reports to make global warming appear to be less of a threat. Documents released in March 2007 at a Congressional hearing in Washington, D.C., showed that in 2003, Philip Cooney, a former oil industry lobbyist and chief of staff of the Council on Environmental Quality, along with other officials in the Bush administration, imposed at least 181 changes to a strategic plan on climate change to play down the scientific consensus on global warming. They made another 113 alterations to minimize the human role in climate change, and inserted possible benefits of climate change. 4 Again, in October 2007 the White House shortened Dr. Julie Gerberding’s (Director of the Center for Disease Control) report from fourteen to six pages, eliminating segments that laid out the effects of global warming on people’s health.

However, the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a group of 2,500 scientists from 130 countries, claims that there is a 90 percent chance that global warming is human caused. The IPCC’s credibility was strengthened in October 2007 when it shared the Nobel Peace Prize with former Vice President Al Gore for its role in addressing global warming. Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans in 2005, is a recent example of the effects of global warming, as are floods in China, Great Britain, Texas and Nigeria in 2007—some of the worst flooding that these places have ever seen. In addition, glaciers are receding, vast ice shelves in Antarctica are breaking off, and the ice melt in Greenland is proceeding at an alarming rate. The latest information on the melting ice in the Arctic suggests that by 2030 there will be no ice there in the summer—decades earlier than estimates of just a few years ago. A summer heat wave in Western Europe in 2003 killed nearly 15,000 people—something unheard of before that time. There seems to be little doubt that global warming is here and that the nations of the world had better figure out how to deal with it before it is too late.

Yet, there still is no massive mobilization of world institutions, corporations, governments, and individuals to stop the unrelenting spewing of greenhouse gases into our atmosphere. Only a few of the candidates for President in 2008, Democratic or Republican, have provided detailed plans to address global warming. Certainly, there are environmentalists who are sounding the call to action. The Kyoto Accord definitely was a step in the right direction. The climate pact just signed in Bali is an even more aggressive agreement that calls for cutting greenhouse emissions in half by 2050 but does not contain specific international goals or targets. However, we are facing a planetary crisis of extraordinary magnitude. It is here. We don’t have decades to deal with it. It will take unprecedented measures to stop the relentless march to environmental collapse, and it must happen quickly. Unless the international community finds the political will to work together, though, there is no way to save the planet.

The sheer magnitude of this threat forces us to envision life without war, because global warming will never be solved unless the resources now used for war are applied to the growing environmental catastrophe. Our love of war and the corporations that profit from arming the world are the primary impediments to any solution. Throughout the history of the world, it is clear that militarism has been the method used for solving intractable problems, but it has never been able to bring about peace in the world, with Iraq as the latest example of such failure. It is time to recognize that war has been an abysmal failure and that we must immediately begin to dismantle the war machinery. The companies that perpetuate it must retool to solve global warming. The coming environmental crisis should be incentive enough for the world to understand that we no longer have the luxury of using warfare to solve problems in the 21st century.

The United Nations (U.N.) is the worldwide institution that was created to do just that—prevent war. However, it was never given the authority to intervene in conflicts where the member nations did not want it. That’s why the five permanent members on the Security Council (U.S., Russia, Great Britain, China, and France) were granted veto power over any U.N. action. Certainly, the U.N. has not been able to prevent all wars but it is the only worldwide entity that has the potential to do so—if countries commit themselves to its success. That commitment must come soon.

Another factor that stokes the flames of war is religious fundamentalism. Fanatic fundamentalism, whether it is Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, or Buddhist, keeps us from thinking rationally about any issue and encourages its adherents to commit unspeakable acts in the name of their god. Religious fundamentalists are able to dehumanize their opponents, and once that’s accomplished it is mandatory to do all they can to decimate these so-called enemies. That kind of energy and venom is not helpful as we strive for unity to save the planet. The threat of global warming requires that we rid the world of religious fundamentalism because of its detrimental effect on international cooperation.

For years Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland fought and killed each other in the name of religion. Fundamentalist Christians in the United States, in their fervor to hasten the Second Coming of Jesus, have fanned the flames of discord and hatred in Israel/Palestine as well as in this country. The Bush administration, with fundamentalist fervor, launched a war in Iraq with devastating consequences. Fundamentalist Muslim recruits for Al Qaida are taught that it is OK to kill in the name of Allah. The list could go on and on. As long as we continue to condone this kind of religious hatred and separation, a concerted effort to unite the people in this world to counter the effects of global warming is remote. Unless these fundamentalist factions can be stopped from espousing hatred along religious lines and ways are found for religious fundamentalists to cooperate with each other, we are again doomed to die as religious enemies.

Since the time is short, we must repudiate power politics because that is exactly what got us into this mess in the first place. Nations and corporations, in their quest for power, profit and markets, coerce others to bend to their wishes. Whether it is through unfair trade agreements, or military support for repressive regimes or outright invasion of other nations, power politics not only impedes the international cooperation needed to save the planet but it also relegates many people to a life of poverty. The Bush administration has been one of the most blatant examples of this kind of arrogance and unilateral action in the world today—exhibiting an attitude that they are above the law. There is no country in this world that is above international law—the U.S. included. National interests do not trump international interests. Power politics has no place in a world pushed to the brink of extinction.

The best solution available for solving the threat of global warming lies in the methodology of pacifist thought. For centuries pacifists, have called nations and individuals to solve problems in peaceful ways rather than through warfare. They have sought to solve intractable problems through nonviolent confrontation, bargaining, diplomacy, negotiation, and justice-making. They have successfully solved problems throughout human history. But, many still denigrate pacifist thought and label it as naïve. Perhaps those who feel that war is a better way are just as naive. Since World War II we have bombed over twenty countries and not once have we ended a dictatorship by doing so. We threw everything we had, except nuclear weapons, against the North Vietnamese for a decade and, in the end, we had to retreat . . . We devastated Belgrade, but we will be playing whack-a-mole with Balkan ethnic groups far into the foreseeable future. Israel and the Palestinians have both failed to get rights or security through violence. Sari Nusseibeh, a notable Palestinian leader, recently said that his people’s greatest mistake has been the idea that Israel would succumb to violence.5 When will we learn that violence does not make things better? It only replaces one violent ruler with another. Historically, war is an abysmal failure.

Given the failure of warfare over the centuries, it is time to listen to the pacifists. It’s time to think outside-the-box. It’s time to realize that today’s weapons are so destructive that modern warfare will ultimately destroy us all if global warming doesn’t do it first. We are not safer today than before World War II. Or even before 9/11. Daryl Byler says, We have as a nation invested 21 trillion dollars over the last 60 years in building a military that is second to none in the world. And yet these events [9/11] happened. So pacifism may be naïve, but I think one has to raise the equal questions about whether this military response isn’t naïve as well, and whether it really gets us where we say we want to go, which I assume is being a secure people.6 It will take saner heads and trillions of dollars to solve the problems