One World

My mother, as a representative of southern republican thinking, would call the statement below extreme. She might even go so far as to use her favorite word - weird. She would dismiss it as the ramblings of the extreme left, while denying the existence of global warming, and along with my father, scoff. Never-mind that neither of them have really done their homework as regards global warming, and neither have come to grips with the idea that nationalism, war, oppression and us against them mentality is obsolete - made so by our ever growing international interdependence and the destructive potential of our technology. Yes both my parents would scoff as would the millions of like-minded conservatives they represent - world unity, world peace indeed - until that is - hopefully - they realized who composed and signed this statement.  Here it is.

The most profound danger to world peace in the coming years will stem not from the irrational acts of states or individuals but from the legitimate demands of the world's dispossessed. Of these poor and disenfranchised, the majority live a marginal existence in equatorial climates. Global warming, not of their making but originating with the wealthy few, will affect their fragile ecologies most. Their situation will be desperate and manifestly unjust.
It cannot be expected, therefore, that in all cases they will be content to await the beneficence of the rich. If then we permit the devastating power of modern weaponry to spread through this combustible human landscape, we invite a conflagration that can engulf both rich and poor. The only hope for the future lies in co-operative international action, legitimized by democracy.
It is time to turn our backs on the unilateral search for security, in which we seek to shelter behind walls. Instead, we must persist in the quest for united action to counter both global warming and a weaponized world.
These twin goals will constitute vital components of stability as we move toward the wider degree of social justice that alone gives hope of peace.
Some of the needed legal instruments are already at hand, such as the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, the Convention on Climate Change, the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaties and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. As concerned citizens, we urge all governments to commit to these goals that constitute steps on the way to replacement of war by law.
To survive in the world we have transformed, we must learn to think in a new way. As never before, the future of each depends on the good of all.

This was written in 2001 and signed by 100 Nobel laureates.

The SIGNATORIES can be found here