I write in response to Gwynne Dyer’s ‘Nuclear Twilight’: Something else to worry about in your Express Newspaper, Monday 03 January, 2022.
In the midst of a global pandemic, vaccine profiteering and western supremacy, Gwynne Dyer has opted to write on a possible nuclear clash between India and Pakistan, two nuclear-armed nations in the Indian sub-continent.
Dyer shared with his readers research led by Prof. Alan Robock of Rutgers University that re-examined the phenomenon of nuclear winter brought about by a nuclear war and its negative impact on the envirnment and food production.
Dyer wrote that the “by-product of a superpower nuclear war, in which the smoke from a thousand burning cities block out the sun and leaves the world freezing in the dark for years.” It would have been better that Dyer shows concern for the current global warming resulting from high emission of carbon dioxide by first world countries and their reneging on their promises to compensate developing countries for decreasing their consumption of fossil fuels.
Dyer continued: “A different team of researchers discovered nuclear winter almost 40 years ago, and it helped to convince the great powers they must never fight a nuclear war.” This is certainly thoughtful of the first world! However, the question must be asked: Why haven’t the West destroyed their nuclear arsenal… and their media which peddle half-truths, lies and innuendoes and shun their vaccines superiority complex?
Dyer wrote: “The Indian and Pakistani nuclear arsenals each amount to about 150 warheads — modest compared to the thousands held by the superpowers, but enough to cause, let’s call it, a nuclear twilight.” Is Dyer saying that the West is responsible while the Pakistanis and Indians are barbarians, not to be trusted with nuclear power? Has the West forgotten Hiroshima?
Dyer continued: “India and Pakistan have fought three full-scale wars and half a dozen major skirmishes since their independence. Another is possible, and the risk of escalation to nuclear weapons would be high, for two reasons.” The West, however, have chosen to fight proxy wars – in distant lands – Korea, Vietnam, Gulf War, Afghanistan. Meddling in the internal affairs of other countries is the modus operandi of the western powers. Imagine that the US alone was involved in the toppling of 41 regimes in the 20th C. The partitioning of India in 1947 to create Pakistan was the handiwork of the western powers. And in the midst of India’s challenges, the west has discovered a saint in Mother Teresa!
Dyer is concerned about the impact of a nuclear war between India and Pakistan. He wrote: “The main effects would be a severe drop in the average global temperature and a comparable decline in global food production, with the worst-hit areas being north of latitude 30 degrees north.” If that would be the possibility then I would surmise that it is karma at work. It may be better for Dyer to worry about the current carbon emissions and its impact on climate change in the developing nations of Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean.
Dyer continued: “The most important breadbaskets of the planet – grain-growing areas that produce a big crop surplus for export – are the United States, Canada, and Europe and all north of 30.” Why is this so? The answer is that the West has encouraged North-South Trade while intentionally destroyed South-South Trade. In fact, the West has opted to provide aid to West African nations to curtail food production so that the sin of dependency would continue. It certainly makes great optics for western media – a white woman caring for a malnourished black baby in Africa!
Dyer’s white supremacist posturing is revealed once again. He wrote: “Australia, Brazil and Argentina, the southern hemisphere’s breadbaskets, might be able to export some grains, but are not remotely capable of compensating for the huge shortfalls from the northern hemisphere.” Are India, China, Vietnam, Japan and so many other nations not self-sufficient in food? Nevertheless, Dyer identifies Brazil, Australia and Argentina, all white-led nation as competent to export grains,
In conclusion, the world will be a better place if the western powers can learn to mind their own business and stop attempting to lecture nations into what is acceptable and what is not acceptable behavior. If the western powers can have nuclear power, then so can Pakistan and India and any nation that so desire.
