2020 Action

How Well Has Delaying Nuclear Diplomacy Served Us?

May 2023 - In 1949, in its first action, the United Nations voted in favor of the elimination of nuclear weapons. Being the only nuclear state, the US refused. Then the Soviets managed to get nuclear weapons, and soon after, also the UK, France, and China, to a total of over 60,000 warheads. The threat of the proliferation of these weapons around the world produced the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) of 1970, essentially a grand bargain: those 5 nuclear states committed to negotiate to eliminate their nuclear weapons, while non-nuclear states committed to forgo nuclear weapons. 

The intervening 53 years have yet to see the first negotiation meeting. Now Israel, India, Pakistan, and North Korea also have them, Iran and Saudi Arabia are making moves in that direction, and the threat of terrorists and criminal gangs getting them is even more terrifying. Clearly, delaying negotiations to eliminate nuclear weapons has not made such negotiations easier. On the contrary, it has made them harder at every step along the way. We need to negotiate nuclear weapons elimination while we still can. The alternative looks bleak indeed. Fortunately, there is a House bill, H. Res. 77, that urges preparatory steps for such negotiations to rid the world of nuclear weapons.

ACTION:

Urge your Representative in Washington to co-sponsor this very critical bill, H. Res.77, to address this terrifying threat. If your Representative is opposed to the bill, ask what his or her plan is to protect and save you, your family, and the world. A superpower nuclear exchange would kill the "lucky" ones immediately, and the rest by starvation due to nuclear winter.

CONTACT: Your Representatives

• Web: Find his/her name and link to their website at house.gov; send an email or leave a message via ‘Contact’ on their website
• Tel: 202 224-3121 (Capitol switchboard-ask for his/her office & leave a message)
• Mail: Representative (first & last name) S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. 20515

Please send this email on to family and friends and/or write a letter-to-the-editor on this important issue. It is a good way to educate others and build support for needed policies.

Biden's Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) Is Disappointing

March - The Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) is a legislatively-mandated review undertaken by each President that establishes U.S. nuclear policy, strategy, capabilities and force posture for the next five to ten years. In October 2022, President Biden made public the unclassified version of his NPR. Before becoming President, Joe Biden was a leader in nuclear arms control, but now some of his actions and policies are going in the opposite direction. Consider these quotes:

1. In 2020 Biden wrote: "... the sole purpose of the U.S. nuclear arsenal should be deterring and, if necessary, retaliating against a nuclear attack." By contrast, Biden's NPR states, “We conducted a thorough review . . . including both No First Use and Sole Purpose policies and concluded that they would lead to “unacceptable risk in light of ... non-nuclear capabilities.” His NPR states that the US could respond with nuclear weapons even to a non-nuclear attack.
2. Former President Trump had championed the W76-2 as a small, "more usable", nuclear warhead.  In contrast, Joe Biden declared that "I don't think there's any such thing as an ability to easily use a tactical nuclear weapon and not end up with Armageddon." Sadly, shortly after that remark, Biden’s NPR supported that very “more usable” W76-2 nuclear weapon. 

On the positive side, Biden's NPR states that the U.S. "will seek opportunities to pursue practical steps to advance the goals of... reduced reliance on nuclear weapons, and, ultimately, a world without nuclear weapons.” We need to encourage him to actually create these opportunities.

ACTION: Contact President Biden. Use the information above to express your surprise and dismay that his NPR is, in several important ways, contrary to his earlier statements. Also, urge him to host a 2023 conference of the nuclear states to prepare the ground for a treaty to eliminate nuclear weapons worldwide. This may not be easy, but it will be harder still once Iran and Saudi Arabia join the nuclear club.

CONTACT: President Biden

• Web: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/  (leave a message)
• Tel: 1-202-456-1111 (leave a message)
• Mail: The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington DC 20500

Please send this email on to family and friends and/or write a letter-to-the-editor on this important issue. It is a good way to educate others and build support for needed policies.

Nuclear Weapons Are Not the Answer

August 2022 - The devastating war in Ukraine is a constant reminder of how destructive conventional weapons are to human lives and psyches, animals, cities, and the environment. It is important to recognize that the existence of nuclear weapons in Russia but not in Ukraine is one of the reasons this war was made possible and is ongoing. On Feb. 27, Russian President Putin announced that his country’s nuclear forces had been placed on “high alert,” meaning, 900 of their nuclear weapons could be launched within 15 minutes. This has enabled Russia to wage conventional war while threatening escalation to a nuclear war. It's clear: nuclear weapons do not “keep the peace.”

Analysts estimate that the world’s nine nuclear states—China, France, India, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, the UK and the US—have around 13,000 nuclear warheads in total. Russia says it has 6,257 nuclear warheads, while the United States admits to having 5,550.

Our priority as a world community must be to eliminate the catastrophic risk posed by nuclear weapons. Yet, the US defense industry and their allies in Congress are using the Ukraine war to call for increased defense funding and new spending on tactical nuclear weapons—nuclear weapons that actually increase the risk of nuclear use.

ACTION: Contact your members of Congress: Ask them to bring us back from the nuclear brink and get the US and all countries on the path to abolishing nuclear weapons. Include the facts above and ask them to do all they can to decrease spending on nuclear weapons and increase funding for other pressing needs that would directly and immediately improve human security such as investments in clean energy technology and infrastructure that will accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels and toward climate stabilization, and work for the US to join the 86 nations that have signed the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

CONTACT: Your Representative and Senators in Congress

• Web: Find your Congress persons’ names and links to their websites at www.senate.gov, www.house.gov; send an email or leave a message via ‘Contact’ on his/her website
• Tel: 202 224-3121 (Capitol switchboard-ask for his/her office & leave a message)
• Mail: Senator or Representative (first & last name) U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C.20510, or U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. 20515

Please forward this email on to your contacts and/or write a letter-to-the-editor

Think Ahead to Do Your Part in Getting to Global Zero

July 2022 - Clearly, federal, state, and local governments, along with industry have a huge job to do to increase their use of fossil-free electricity and to get themselves off all fossil fuels by 2050. 

But 2050 is coming to us regular folks also, and how do we get ourselves to stop buying gasoline and heating fuel? Switch to electric cars and electric heat pumps to heat our houses. Both cost more initially to buy, but both now have governmental financial subsidies, and both are much cheaper to use over their lifetimes.

The key is to plan ahead now. Furnaces often fail in the winter, almost never in the summer!  So the idea is to get several plans and financial bids ahead of time, so when your furnace fails, you're ready to install your planned heat pump. If you don't do your change-over at that time, you'll want or need to do it at some future time before 2050, when your furnace may still have "years of good life" left in it.

It's similar with your car. As it ages, be aware of electric car options, so when your car needs to be replaced, you'll be ready to buy an electric one. Start now on your way to Global Zero. 

ACTION:

Make plans now about your home heating system. It's critical to be able to move quickly if your furnace dies in deepest January with little time to make a fossil-free decision. The idea is to explore and decide now, ahead of time, before you'd be rushed into another fossil-fueled furnace, which would inevitably need to be replaced by a heat pump before 2050. 

Steps:

1.   Do a home free energy audit. Contact your municipality for information.
2.   Then do an energy and insulation upgrade. Government subsidies are available.
3.   Get 2-3 installation designs along with financial bids and testimonials from prior customers. 
4.   Be ready to make the switch to a heat pump and an electric car when needed.

Please forward this email to family and friends and/or write a letter-to-the-editor on this important issue. It is a good way to educate others and build support for needed action.

NY Times: Aid Groups Fear Starvation Death of 1 Million Afghan Children This Winter

January 2022 - We are sending you the January 2022 Action early because the need is so urgent. The US has been deeply engaged in and supportive of Afghanistan for over 20 years. Since our withdrawal in August, the billions of dollars annually in US aid to Afghanistan has stopped dead. We also bear a heavy moral responsibility for the sanctions we have imposed cutting it off from most other sources of aid. This has basically collapsed the Afghan economy and caused a food scarcity of crisis proportions. The UN World Food Program and other aid groups have been long established in Afghanistan and can deliver food directly to the people who need it most. But they don't have nearly the resources that are desperately and immediately needed to keep children from starvation.

TAKE ACTION:

1. Contact Pres. Biden who can take Executive action to help avoid a mass catastrophe in Afghanistan. A brief message is best. Below is a letter of the sort you might send to him.
2. If you can, we encourage you to make a personal donation to the UN World Food Program which has worked in Afghanistan since 1963. This would be most helpful because it can be used immediately. They say that a $75 donation feeds a family of 5 for a month. This is only a small part of what is needed, but for that family, for that month, it means survival. Click on  

 https://www.wfpusa.org/news-release/half-of-afghanistans-population-face-acute-hunger/

Then click on the red DONATE sign at the top. Thank you so much.

CONTACT: President Biden

• Web: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/  (leave a message)
• Tel: 1-202-456-1111 (leave a message)
• Mail: The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington DC 20500

 

Please send this email on to family and friends and/or write a letter-to-the-editor on this important issue. It is a good way to educate others and build support for needed policies.

 

Sample message to President Biden (you can leave this on the White House website: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/

President Joseph R. Biden

The White House

Washington DC 

Dear Mr. President,

I am in anguish about the 1 million children that could actually starve to death in Afghanistan this winter (NY Times:  https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/04/world/asia/afghanistan-starvation-crisis.html). That is horrific. They are surely innocent by any measure. 

Please do your utmost to prevent this catastrophe: transfer funds to the UN World Food Program and other aid agencies, lift some sanctions on the Taliban, and send emergency food supplies to Afghanistan. We cannot sit by, while we, by sanctioning the Taliban, prevent Afghan children from getting food to survive.

Mr. President, you are an empathic person. I know you are extremely busy, but please act to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe that is surely coming if nothing is done. 

Thank you for your help in this matter. 

Sincerely yours,

(your name and address)

2021 Action Report

2021 ACTION REPORT
on Monthly Actions

January 2021: President Trump Must Not Attack Iran!  Fortunately, he didn’t.

February 2021: A New Sheriff in Town—A New Beginning  With Pres. Biden in office, we urged him to undo the Trumpian withdrawals from existing nuclear agreements. There were three: 

a) The Open Skies Agreement provides stability by allowing U.S. and Russian flights over the U.S., Russia, and Europe. Pres. Trump pulled out, then Russia also, effective Dec. 2021. Talks between the U.S. and Russia are ongoing.

b) The New START Treaty limits U.S. and Russian deployment of strategic nuclear weapons to 1,550 each, with extensive verification. Pres. Trump pulled out of the Treaty, but Pres. Biden and Putin reinstated it on Feb. 3, weeks after Biden's inauguration.

c) The Iran Deal, to prevent Iran from building a nuclear bomb. Again, Pres. Trump pulled out, but in recent days, Iran has announced that it is willing to negotiate and talks are now scheduled to resume in Vienna on November 29^th, 2021.

March 2021: Support the National Climate Emergency Act  H.R. 794, the National Climate Emergency Act of 2021, called on the President to declare a climate national emergency under the National Emergency Act of 1976, to mobilize resources for large-scale climate mitigation and resiliency projects. The bill has 50 co-sponsors but has not been voted on. However, some of these provisions were approved in the Infrastructure Bill in early November.

April 2021: Iran Window of Opportunity  In the 2015 "Iran Deal", Iran gave up 90% of its partly enriched uranium, in return for the lifting of sanctions which had been imposed to prevent it from making a nuclear bomb. Pres. Trump pulled out of the deal in 2018, re-imposing sanctions. After a year, Iran restarted enriching uranium. In April 2021 we encouraged Pres. Biden's efforts to bring back the Iran Deal. Recently, Iran announced its willingness to continue negotiations and talks are scheduled to begin in Vienna on November 29^th, 2021.

May 2021: Eliminate Human Caused Emissions of Methane  Two bills were introduced in the Congress S.645 & HR 7435, to require the Secretary of the Treasury to levy a fee on methane emissions from oil and natural gas facilities, and from other sources.  The goal was to charge $1,500 for each metric ton of methane emitted above thresholds.  Later a provision of the Build Back Better budget proposal would charge oil and gas operators if they release methane above a certain limit and offer $775 million to help reduce and monitor this greenhouse gas.  Recently, the U.S. announced it will join a Global Methane Pledge to cut methane emissions 30% by 2030. 

In Glasgow at the UN Climate Conference, China and the U.S. pledged to enhance emission control in the fossil fuel, waste, and agriculture sectors. They will meet in early 2022 to agree on standards and measurements.

June 2021: No-First Use  HR 921 is a bill that would establish a U.S. policy to not use nuclear weapons first. Although this bill has enjoyed a fair number of sponsors (52, all Democrats) and has been introduced twice, in 2017 and 2019, it has not yet been put to a vote. S272 in the Senate, with a similar purpose, has 7 co-sponsors  (6 Democrats, 1 Independent). It was introduced in 2019 and 2021 but has not yet received a vote.

July 2021: Infrastructure Act and Water Act  The infrastructure Act has passed both the Senate and House and was signed by the President. The Water Affordability, Transparency, Equity, and Reliability Act of 202 provides funding for several programs related to controlling water pollution or protecting drinking water. Although this act was never voted on, some of its goals will be achieved in the Infrastructure Act which dedicates approximately $82.5 billion for a wide range of critical water investments including improvements in safe drinking water and sanitation.  

August 2021: Last Exit off the Highway to Nuclear Catastrophe?  We urged Pres. Biden to make the necessary arrangements to "negotiate in good faith" with the goal of worldwide nuclear disarmament. The press has mentioned no such efforts or arrangements. But our chances for negotiations may improve: China has recently demonstrated its hypersonic, steerable, radar-evading missile, against which our missile defense is useless because it is not steerable. Consequently, the U.S. may develop an interest in beginning negotiations toward nuclear disarmament. 

September 2021: End US Fossil Fuel Subsidies Here and Abroad  We asked that members of Congress act to eliminate all US fossil fuel subsidies within the US and for overseas projects. However, the Infrastructure Bill that Biden has just signed into law included additional $billions in support for fossil fuels, including subsidies for hydrogen made from fossil fuels, a $25 billion loan guarantee for a new liquified natural gas facility in Alaska, and an exemption from environmental review for new gas and oil pipelines across federal lands. The Build Back Better reconciliation bill, expected to be voted on before the end of the year, also includes an estimated $35 billion worth of domestic fossil fuel subsidies. President Biden had identified these for removal but the House has not eliminated them. 

The agreement that has just been finalized by all nations the COP26 includes the request that countries phase out "inefficient fossil fuel subsidies."  No firm dates have been set however for the U.S. to do this. 

October 2021: Global Warming-The Most Certain Threat to our National Security  The Pocan (D-WI) Amendment to the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act called for a reduction of 10% in military spending, which would free up funds to address climate change, the most certain threat to our national security. In a rush of hundreds of votes in the House, dubbed the vote-a-rama, it was voted on, but lost.

November 2021: Stop Adding Fuel to the Fire  We urged Pres. Biden, while he attended the UN Climate Conference in Glasgow, to ask all countries to eliminate fossil fuel subsidies. He was only partly successful. Upon returning home, on, Nov. 17th, his administration complied with a Louisiana judge’s ruling that ended an earlier Biden Executive Order to stop new oil and gas drilling that was permitted by former Pres. Trump. This opens more than 80 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico and in Western lands to oil and gas drilling leases on public lands. The US Department of Justice is appealing the Louisiana decision. Stay tuned.

We also asked Pres. Biden to call on all nations to regulate banks to no longer loan money for fossil fuel development. He directed all US agencies to seek to end all US and international investments by multilateral development banks in overseas fossil fuel development, and to invest in renewables instead. This does not address domestic fossil fuel development.

In addition, we asked Pres. Biden to call on wealthier countries to increase (and meet) their commitments to support the efforts of poorer countries hard hit by climate disasters. The document, called the Glasgow Climate Pact, urges the developed countries to meet their joint $100 billion annual pledge, and in fact calls for at least doubling it. There is no list of countries that agreed to do this.

2020 Action—Focus, Determination, Persistence

Help us keep Americans informed and engaged
for peace & the environment as we celebrate our 35^th year!

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Your participation & donation now will help us grow.

Deep appreciation and Gratitude to all 2020 members, Core Group of Researchers & Writers, Donors, Colleagues, and Supporters

Key Time for Pres. Biden to Adopt a Nuclear No First Use Policy

December 2021 - The US decision on whether to have a policy not to start a nuclear war by being the first to use nuclear weapons is coming up in the next few weeks as Pres. Biden's Nuclear Posture Review is finalized. Any use of nuclear weapons is liable to generate a huge nuclear response which could generate a "nuclear winter." Dust generated by incinerating cities would rise and spread around the globe. This could block out the sun and kill off food production--at least in the northern hemisphere.

As Pres. Reagan said: "Nuclear war can never be won, and must never be fought." We can take heart that in 2017 Joe Biden said: "Deterring, and if necessary, retaliating against a nuclear attack should be the sole purpose of the US nuclear arsenal." It's time to urge him to formalize his thought into a No First Use Policy in his Nuclear Posture Review.

China has had such a policy since 1964, which we welcomed and which has made us less jumpy. US General Milley, the Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was so concerned that China could think that Pres. Trump might use a nuclear attack on China to enable him to stay in office that he, Milley, called up China to allay its fears. A U.S. No First Use Policy could have lowered the tensions on both sides.

TAKE ACTION: This month, many peace and security organizations are calling on their members to urge Pres. Biden to incorporate a No First Use Policy into his upcoming Nuclear Posture Review. Please add your voice. Urge Pres. Biden to adopt a No First Use Policy, because you and the world will be safer.

CONTACT: President Biden

• Web: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/  (leave a message)
• Tel: 1-202-456-1111 (leave a message)
• Mail: The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington DC 20500

Please write a letter-to-the-editor on this important issue.
It is a good way to educate others and build support for needed policies.

Last Exit off the Highway to Nuclear Catastrophe?

August 2021 - On Aug. 6, 2020, Hiroshima Day, Presidential Candidate Joe Biden proclaimed: “I will work to bring us closer to a world without nuclear weapons.” That was encouraging to the many Americans who favor a world without nuclear weapons, and to the 122 countries that voted for the Nuclear Ban Treaty of 2017. 

But President Biden has instead joined in a 3-way hypersonic arms race with Russia and China, with basically unstoppable nuclear and non-nuclear missiles traveling 4,000 to 14,000 mph. This shrinks the time of deciding whether what seems like an incoming nuclear attack is really an attack, or just a false alarm. Having about 10 minutes to decide, as we had in the past, has twice saved us from worldwide nuclear catastrophe. First by Lt. Col. Stanislav Petrov on Sept. 26, 1983, when he faced a computer warning of a US attack of "high reliability" calling for "full nuclear retaliation". Bless him for not following his orders, for what turned out to be the sun's reflection off some clouds. A second false alarm came before Boris Yeltsin on Jan. 25, 1995, but he could not believe that “my friend Bill” could do such a thing.

With hypersonic missiles, we’d lose those 10 valuable minutes. If the world is EVER going to save itself from nuclear destruction by eliminating its 13,132 nuclear weapons, this present moment could be the last chance. Russia has already deployed a hypersonic ICBM, with “reportedly” a nuclear warhead, according to the Congressional Research Service.

TAKE ACTION:  Contact Pres. Biden and urge him to make the necessary arrangements to “negotiate in good faith” with a goal of worldwide nuclear disarmament as we and the U.K., Russia, China, and France solemnly committed to do in the Non-Proliferation Treaty of 1970. It is high time. The world is heading into a continually deeper trap, so the sooner we do this, the better chance we have.

CONTACT: President Biden
Web: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/       
Tel: 1-202-456-1111 
Mail:   The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington DC 20500

Please write a letter-to-the-editor on this important issue.
It is a good way to educate others and build support for needed policies.

Prohibit the First Use of Nuclear Weapons

June 2021 - A nuclear exchange between the US and Russia or the US and China would incinerate hundreds of millions of people immediately, and lead to a Nuclear Winter which would slaughter an estimated 7 billion of the Earth’s 7.7 billion people, mostly through starvation. It is estimated that building back civilization would require over 1,000 years. These are the stakes.

As a step toward reducing the danger of Nuclear War, a coalition of groups has called upon the President to declare – and Congress to legislate – that the US will commit never to be the first to use nuclear weapons, either as an unprompted surprise attack, as an escalatory move in a conventional conflict, or in response to a non-nuclear attack. The only situation in which the US would use nuclear weapons would be in response to a confirmed nuclear attack on itself or its allies. China has had a nuclear No First Use policy since 1964.

No First Use has the support of a growing number of members of Congress and President Biden who stated in 2019 that he has supported No First Use for twenty years. This provides a real chance now to take this important step toward reducing the risks of nuclear war. It’s time to declare a No First Use policy and legislate it into law!

TAKE ACTION:  Ask your Representatives and Senators to support No First Use bills: in the House, H.R. 921, and in the Senate, S. 272.  If enacted, the United States would commit to never being the first nation to use nuclear weapons in any conflict. Remind President Biden that he has supported a “No First Use” policy for twenty years and encourage him to turn his words into action. This would help prevent an ‘intended’ or ‘mistaken’ nuclear exchange.

CONTACT: President Biden and Your Members of Congress

President Biden:      
• Web: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/       
• Tel: 1-202-456-1111 
• Mail:   The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington DC 20500

Members of Congress:
• Web: Find your Congress persons’ names and links to their websites at www.senate.gov, www.house.gov;    send an email or leave a message via ‘Contact’ on his/her website
• Tel: 202 224-3121 (Capitol switchboard-ask for his/her office & leave a message)
• Mail: Senator or Representative (first & last name) U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C.20510, or U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. 20515

Thanks to peace organizations including PSR, Council for a Livable World and
Peace Action for information used in this card.

Please write a letter-to-the-editor on this important issue

A New Sheriff - A New Beginning

February 2021 - With Joe Biden as our new President, we have a brand-new chance to finally address the worldwide nuclear weapons threat that is getting more threatening of late. All 9 nuclear nations are currently in a mad arms race, modernizing their nuclear weapons, making new smaller “more usable” ones, and speeding up their delivery systems. All this unfortunately leaves less time to determine whether what looks like a massive attack is not actually the moon’s reflections off clouds. No joke—that happened!

This is a unique opportunity to finally make preparations for global elimination of nuclear weapons, which every nation on earth has said it favors. The 1970 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) is a grand bargain: the non-nuclear nations committed to forgo nuclear weapons, while the nuclear nations at the time, China, France, Russia, U.K., and the U.S. committed to negotiate to eliminate theirs. The U.S. Constitution declares that Treaties are “the Supreme Law of the Land”, so it’s time to move on this. In addition, 122 nations have now voted for the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons which entered into force on January 22 of this year.

TAKE ACTION:

Congratulate President Biden and tell him that you strongly support his aim to re-enter the Open Skies Treaty (allowing limited overflights over Russia, Europe, and the U.S.), the Iran Deal (to prevent Iran from making a nuclear bomb), and the New START Treaty (limiting U.S. and Russian strategic nuclear weapon deployments at 1,550 each, with checks against cheating).

Urge him in the strongest terms to invite the nuclear nations to lay the groundwork for negotiations to eliminate nuclear weapons worldwide, as we solemnly committed to do in the Non-Proliferation Treaty. The UN NPT Review Conference planned for this August would be a perfect time to do this.

CONTACT: President Biden

• Web: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
• Tel: 1-202-456-1414 Leave a message
• Mail: The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington DC 20500

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