HADLEY — A global political landscape destabilized by climate change would increase the risk of a nuclear war, activist Dr. Ira Helfand said at the “Climate Change and the Growing Risk of Nuclear War” symposium on Saturday.
More than 130 people attended the daylong event at the Hadley Farms conference center. It was sponsored by the local chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility, a national organization of physicians opposed to nuclear proliferation and environmental degradation.
The event included a series of lectures by doctors, academics and religious leaders outlining the risks of climate change and nuclear war.
“Climate change is going to be terrible,” said Helfand, of Leeds, the organization’s former president, during a break in the conference. “It’s going to lead to conflict between nations. That conflict is going to descend into nuclear war.”
During a morning lecture, Hampshire College professor Michael Klare drew further connections between climate change and global instability.
“Climate change comes along and conditions deteriorate horribly,” he said citing recent hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria as examples. “Inequality will lead to conflict and violence.”
Steady drought in Syria has contributed in large part to instability in that country, said Harvard professor Jennifer Leaning in a talk titled “Syria: A Case Study in Climate-Induced Conflict.”
“As climate change becomes more intense, we have seen that governments are having trouble coping,” Leaning said. She added that competition for scarce resources and a mass movement from arid farms to crowded cities created the conditions for violence in Syria.
Another area of concern is the India/Pakistan border, Princeton University professor Zia Mian said in his talk. He worries that conflict over the disputed territory of Kashmir could easily turn to nuclear war.
“As far as they are concerned they are at war,” he said of the two nations. “It’s not an abstraction, it’s not some far off discussion.”
Resource scarcity is also a factor, he said. India controls the water flow of Pakistan’s Indus River via a dam. If India were to “turn off” the water, Mian said, Pakistan is prepared to fight back. The U.S. is allied with India and could end up being involved if there were to be a conflict.
“It’s not hard to imagine how we get from here to a world-scale nuclear war,” Mian said. “If we use our own nuclear weapons, we destroy ourselves. These have become suicide bombs.”
The day ended with a call to action: a resolution calling on the U.S. government to revise its nuclear policy and eliminate all of its nuclear weapons.
The resolution, Helfand said, is modeled off the 1982 nuclear freeze campaign that made it all the way to the U.S. House of Representatives and some say pushed Reagan to end the Cold War arms race.
“This has been a problem that’s existed for decades,” Helfand said, noting that many of the attendees, including nonagenarian Frances Crowe of Northampton, have been working toward nuclear disarmament for over 30 years.
“We have a responsibility to not pass this problem on to our grandchildren,” he said.
Helfand, who last week attended the signing ceremony at the United Nations for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, is encouraging people to bring the resolution to town halls, faith groups, union meetings and other community organizations to garner support for nuclear disarmament. He hopes that, ultimately, America can set an example for the rest of the world.
“The U.S. has got to take a leadership role in pushing for the elimination of these weapons,” Helfand said.
One attendee, William Albritton of Northampton, expressed doubts over the approach. During a question-and-answer session, the climate activist wondered aloud if disarmament is a realistic goal. He worries that people in the U.S. might feel that disarmament would leave the country vulnerable to attacks from other nations.
“We can’t even address this problem until we solve other problems,” Albritton said. “We need to be more tolerant of other countries and more civilized before we can talk about nuclear weapons.”
Other participants said they were inspired to act against nuclear weapons.
Daphne Stevens, a climate activist from Northampton, said she felt a renewed commitment to the cause after hearing the speakers.
“I knew all this stuff, but now I know it more,” she said. “And I know I’m not alone.”
Recent UMass Amherst grad Aaron Karp drove out to the event from his home in North Brookfield in part to find a community of like-minded activists, he said. During his undergraduate years, he founded a branch of the divest movement, a campaign to push the administration to take its investments out of fossil fuels.
“Hearing about the nuclear war side, I get a sense of urgency that I had when I first started working on climate issues,” Karp said.