Har du märkt nyligen att saker kollapsar?
Visst, de högerorienterade, nationalistiska härskarna i många länder slutar aldrig att berätta för oss att de har gjort sina nationer "stora" igen.
But we would have to be dislocated from reality not to notice that something is wrong―very wrong. After all, the world is currently engulfed in a coronavirus-pandemi that has already infected over 12.5 million people, taken over 550,000 lives, and created massive economic disruption. And the pandemic is accelererande, medan, enligt forskare, nya och mer fruktansvärda sjukdomar är på gång.
Moreover, we are now experiencing a rapidly-growing environmental catastrophe. Not only are industriella föroreningar poisoning the air, the water, and the land as never before, but climate change is making the planet uninhabitable. Extreme heat, drought, storms, floods, melting glaciers, and rising sea levels are orsakar förödelse on an unprecedented scale. This June, the temperature in the Arctic reached 100.4 grader Fahrenheit– det hetaste någonsin.
Dessutom, trots allt förnuft, fortsätter nationer att beväpna sig för ett kärnvapenkrig som kommer att förstöra praktiskt taget allt liv på jorden. Publicly hotande kärnvapenkrig och kasta åt sidan eller förkasta stora kärnvapenkontroll- och nedrustningsavtal är kärnvapenmakterna för närvarande engagerade i en omfattande kärnvapenuppbyggnad, med den amerikanska regeringen ensam planerar att spendera åtminstone $ 1.5 biljoner on this project. In response to the looming catastrophe, the editors of the Bulletin of the atom scientists placerade nyligen händerna på sin berömda "Domeday Clock" kl 100 sekunder till midnatt―den farligaste miljön i dess 73-åriga historia.
Even if these disastrous developments fail to snuff out the human race, plenty of mass misery can be expected from the rising economic and social inequality occurring around the globe. According to a FN-studie, released in January 2020, 70 percent of the world’s people suffer from growing economic inequality. In a foreword to the study, UN Secretary General António Guterres declared that the world is confronting “the harsh realities of a deeply unequal landscape,” characterized by “a vicious cycle of inequality, frustration, and discontent.” Feeding on popular fears and anxieties, rasism och främlingsfientlighet är på väg upp.
But extinction or, at best, mass misery, need not be humanity’s fate. Thanks to very substantial advances in knowledge over the centuries, plus the efforts of creative thinkers and determined reform movements, human beings have shown a remarkable ability to confront challenges and to improve the human condition. From the abolition of slavery to the creation of public education, the banning of child labor, the guaranteeing of old age security, the legalization of unions, the recognition of women’s rights, and the defense of gay rights, previously unimaginable changes have been promoted and implemented.
Why should we assume that we are incapable of responding to today’s crises? Working together, physicians and other scientists have either utrotat eller dramatiskt minskat utbudet av många sjukdomar, including smallpox, polio, guinea worm, malaria, and measles. Responding to climate change activism, scientists and engineers have developed methods to utilize solar and wind power to ersätta fossila bränslen. Similarly, critics of the nuclear arms race and wise statesmen have främjat kärnvapenkontroll och nedrustningsavtal and helped prevent nuclear war. Furthermore, numerous movements have succeeded, on occasion, in securing a mer rättvis fördelning av välstånd och en minskning av diskrimineringen.
Of course, the changes necessary to cope with today’s crises will not be obtained easily. To successfully battle pandemics, it will be essential to create a far stronger public health system, accessible to everyone. Combatting climate change will almost certainly require challenging the vast power of the fossil fuel industry. To avert nuclear war, it will probably be necessary to both ban nuclear weapons and create a stronger international security system. And when it comes to securing greater economic and social equality, limiting corporate greed, taxing the rich, and reducing deep-seated prejudices remain imperative.
Even if these conditions are met, however, another challenge remains, for implementing these kinds of changes necessitates action on a worldwide basis. After all, disease pandemics, climate catastrophe, nuclear war, and economic and social inequality are global problems that require global solutions. As the director general of the VÄRLDSHÄLSOORGANISATIONEN remarked in late June, the greatest threat to humanity from the coronavirus is not the virus itself, but “the lack of global solidarity” in dealing with it. He added: “We cannot defeat this pandemic with a divided world.” Much the same could be said about overcoming the other onrushing disasters.
Although there is not much time left before the world succumbs to one or more catastrophes, human beings have been able to alter their behavior and institutions. Let’s hope they will rouse themselves and do so again.
Lawrence Wittner (https://www.lawrenceswittner.com/ ) är professor i History Emeritus hos SUNY / Albany och författare till Konfrontera bomben (Stanford University Press).
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