Bernie Sanders last piece published on The Guardian remind us a scream from leaders all around the world: Climate Change is a Justice & Leadership Crisis.
Sanders, known to be a democratic radical leftist, suggests a radical idea: The U.S. and China must mutually cut their military budgets and use the savings to intensify their efforts towards improving energy efficiency, transitioning to sustainable energy, and ending reliance on fossil fuels. The additional funds could also aid developing countries impacted by climate change.
Let me give you the number behind Sanders idea:
It is proven that a just and fair transition to sustainable development is possible with a minimum investment comparing against the large amount on damage that climate change catastrophes will cause. The world will require USD $175,000 trillions.
Hence, the total amount to provide clean energy and eradicate poverty will cost us $87.5 trillion USD.
The United States has one of the highest military budgets in the world, coming in at around $750 billion annually. China, with the second-largest military budget, spends approximately $250 billion per year (aparrently).For a total of €1 USD trillion a year.
Climate Change and The World War III
The United Nations has estimated that it would take an additional $10 trillion per year in public and private spending for all developed and developing nations to meet the 17 Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.
With China and the USA giving up their military budgets, the world should expect a cut on military budget from all developed countries to meet the additional $10 trillions a year remaining.
But a simple budget allocation would never solve the biggest threat humanity has ever faced on its existence. That is why, we will always repeat: Climate change is a Justice and Leadership Crisis.
Climate Change necessitates international cooperation and is being critically threatened by political tensions, specifically between the U.S. and China – the two greatest carbon emitters globally.
Due to record-breaking heatwaves and temperatures, increasing wildfires, and damage caused by natural disasters, urgent action is required at a global scale.
In recent years, there has been encouraging progress in transitioning from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources. Various countries, including the U.S., China, and the European Union, have made substantial investments in clean energy and energy efficiency.
Solar energy is already attracting more capital than oil for first time and it’s predicted that by 2025, renewables will overtake coal as the leading source of global electricity.
The War of China and USA must be against climate change Transition Energy Solar
Despite these advancements, current efforts are not sufficient to avoid significant and irreversible damage to the earth. If countries do not invest more and operate with greater urgency to reduce carbon emissions, the world could cross the critical temperature threshold by the early 2030s.
The U.S. has admitted more atmospheric carbon than any other country since the Industrial Revolution, with China recently taking over as the biggest carbon emitter due to its rapidly growing economy.
Further more, it’s clear that heightened military spending in both countries, in lieu of allocating these resources to combat climate change, is proving detrimental.
Beyond thinking about whether it is possible to lay down your arms and start investing more in solar panels and turbines, leaders around the world must join Sanders’ call and RADICALIZE the cry: We need a war against climate change, and NOT an arms war between the United States and China.
Germany’s defence minister Christine Lambrecht has finally resigned ending a controversial 13-month.
Lambrecht’s resignation comes as Germany continues to be under European pressure to provide Ukraine with its advanced leopard two tanks, but Chancellor Olaf Schulz has refused to deliver “alone”.
Despite Schulz having said he has a successor in mind, the chancellor has other criteria to meet: He had earlier committed to having an equal number of male and female ministers in the cabinet.
By that logic, Lambrecht would have to be replaced by a woman only. The hunt is still on; A vacancy in the defence Ministry for days is the last thing Schulz would want now, particularly with a slew of meetings lined up with western allies on the issue of Ukraine.
So what led to Lambrecht’s political failure?
Analysts say this has been due to her lack of knowledge about the military and her style of leadership.
The most immediate reason, however, is from New Year’s day when she posted a rather awkward video surrounded by fireworks. She seemingly mixed up the Ukraine war with pleasant personal encounters.
Lambrecht recorded this video informally on a mobile phone on the streets of Berlin, she was criticized for her “tone-deaf message”.
Since she was picked as a defence minister in December 2021, many were sceptical about Lambert’s competency. Reportedly, in one of her first public interactions, she admitted to even botching up the sequence of military ranks.
Germany decided to not participate actively in the Russian-Ukrain war, then in an almost token gesture, Berlin offered to supply around 5000 helmets to Ukraine forces.
Lambrecht and Schulz both were slammed for this by Kyiv, at a time when their European counterparts did much more.
Foto: dpa/Philipp Schulze
Further, in May 2022 she came under fire for allowing her son to accompany her on a government helicopter on their way to a family vacation.
Moreover, she failed to implement an increase in military spending as pledged by Chancellor Schulz, despite the creation of a 100 billion Euro investment fund for the German Armed Forces.
And a lack of progress was evident; During a military exercise last month to prepare for inclusion in NATO’s “High Readiness response force”, all 18 of the modern German tanks broke down.
The tanks, a key weapon for the German Army, suffered a lot of malfunctions, from electronic failures to direct defects.
Lambrecht did hold an emergency meeting on the situation but was called out soon enough for not being in sync with the forces’ requirements.
This failure has raised the question: Can women lead an army?
This question is highly relevant now that war drums resonate louder.
Women have served in the military in many different roles in various jurisdictions throughout history.
Women in many countries are no longer excluded from some types of combat missions such as piloting, mechanics, and infantry officer. Since 1914, in western militaries, women have served in greater numbers and more diverse roles than before.
In the 1970s, most Western armies began allowing women to serve in active duty in all military branches. In 2006, eight countries (China, Eritrea, Israel, Libya, Malaysia, North Korea, Peru, and Taiwan) conscripted women into military service.
In 2013, Norway became the first NATO country to draft women, as well as the first country in the world to conscript women on the same formal terms as men. In 2017, neighbouring Sweden followed suit and in 2018, the Netherlands joined this line-up (although in the Netherlands there is no active peacetime conscription).
As of 2022, only three countries conscripted women and men on the same formal conditions: Norway, Sweden, and the Netherlands. A few other countries have laws allowing for the conscription of women into their armed forces, however with some differences such as service exemptions, length of service, and more.
A 2015 Marine Corps study found that women in a unit created to assess female combat performance were significantly injured twice as often as men, less accurate with infantry weapons and not as good at removing wounded troops from the battlefield.
The study assessed a nine-month experiment at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, and Twentynine Palms, California. About 400 Marines, including 100 women, volunteered to participate.
Male squads, teams, and crews demonstrated better performance on 93 of 134 tasks evaluated (69%) than units with women in them. Male units were faster while completing tactical movements in combat situations, especially in units with large “crew-served” weapons such as heavy machine guns and mortars.
Male infantry squads had better accuracy than squads with women in them, with “a notable difference between genders for every individual weapons system” used by infantry rifleman units. The M4 carbine, M27 infantry automatic rifle and M203 single-shot grenade launcher were assessed.
Male Marines who had not received infantry training were more accurate than women who had. In removing wounded troops from the battlefield, “notable differences in execution times were found between all-male and gender-integrated groups”.
Unit cohesion was lower in mixed-gender units. Many female soldiers reported that the way that they are viewed by male soldiers is often detrimental to their participation. For instance, female soldiers are often labelled as “either standoffish or a slut”.
To avoid such labels, female soldiers have to spend time with fellow soldiers strategically, without spending too much time with any one of them. This approach often has an isolating effect.
In several instances, women were considered less skilled than male soldiers, so were not given opportunities to complete tasks for which they were qualified.
According to Lieutenant colonel Dave Grossman, author of On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society, Israeli soldiers reacted with uncontrollable protectiveness and aggression after seeing a woman wounded. Further, Islamic militants rarely, if ever, surrender to female soldiers, lessening the IDF’s ability to take prisoners.
Iraqi and Afghan civilians are often not intimidated by female soldiers. However, in socially conservative environments, female combat soldiers can search female civilians, while children and women are more likely to talk to female soldiers than to male soldiers.
There have been several women who have served as defence ministers in various countries throughout the world. Some examples include:
In the United Kingdom, Anne-Marie Trevelyan was appointed as the Defence Secretary in 2019, becoming the first woman to hold that position.
In India, Nirmala Sitharaman was the first full-time woman Defence Minister of India, she served the role from 2017 to 2021.
In Chile, Michelle Bachelet, from 2002 to 2004, became the first woman to hold this post in a Latin American country and one of the few in the world.
These are just a few examples, many other women have served as defence ministers in other countries around the world.
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