Why the vicious spiral of war needs to be broken sooner rather than later - Yorkshire Post Letters

Right now, in 2026, the most significant danger facing humanity lies in the consequences of Climate Change, despite the recent warnings from the likes of Lord Robertson.

If we continue with business as usual till the end of the century, most of our coastal cities like London and New York will be under water, and the consequent refugee crisis will make the current problem seem like a tea party.

One of the worst and most wasteful contributors to climate change is open warfare; the destruction and burning of infrastructure (to be carbon-expensively rebuilt) is an outrageous crime against our future; to say nothing of the crime of widespread and indiscriminate murder.

Pacifists, who argue against increases in defence expenditure, are branded as cowards and traitors, but their message is globally based rather than nationally based.

When Leo Tolstoy wrote 'War and Peace', he was not simply describing the fictional events surrounding a few families caught up in the Napoleonic wars, he was also arguing his own brand of pacifism, in which he described all the youth in all the armies of the world as living in respectable idleness.

We sustain our armies, we say, because 'they' have even bigger armies; but 'they' justify their armies because we have soldiers who pose a threat to them. The vicious spiral has always been with us, and must be broken sooner rather than later.

Humanity's future depends on the people and the leaders of the world actually recognising the real existential threat, and on them diverting their energies away from killing fellow humans and to changing our relationship with our planet to ways demanded by the planet.