Editor’s Note: This post is a letter to the editor written by Ground Zero’s Mary Gleysteen, It was published in the Kitsap Sun on January 27, 2020. We invite you to write letters to the editor of your local newspapers. Click here to learn more about the Doomsday Clock. Check out our Take Action page to learn more about the new “low-yield” W76-2 Trident warhead.
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The Sun just ran an article about the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moving the Doomsday Clock to 100 Seconds to Midnight. This represents the closest we have come to destroying civilization with dangerous technologies of our own making since the clock’s creation in 1947.
We in Kitsap County advance this clock towards the end of a habitable planet every time we vote for representatives who put the perceived economic self-interest of Kitsap County, represented by local defense department spending, above the future of civilization.
Recent Congressional authorization of spending on low-yield nuclear weapons is a notable contributing factor in the approach to midnight. These weapons which will be deployed on Trident SSBN submarines are far more likely to be used than strategic nuclear weapons. Once they are launched there is no way to call them back, and they will provoke a deadly response. None of us wants to be responsible for the launch of these weapons or to be the target of catastrophic retaliation.
“Warheads to Windmills: How to Pay for a Green New Deal” by Timmon Wallis, provides examples of steps we can take to avert nuclear holocaust, address the climate crisis and repair the planet.
We must demand bold, creative and conscientious political leadership, willing to take such action to reverse the march to midnight.
Mary Gleysteen
Kingston, Washington
Original LTE source URL: https://www.kitsapsun.com/story/opinion/readers/2020/01/27/put-civilization-top-our-agenda/4591363002/
