Averting Doomsday—the Bigger Cause That Can Unite Fighting Nations and Confused People

A country that is badly divided with various groups fighting each other can suddenly be united when a much feared enemy attacks and the people find common cause in averting this threat from an outside force.

Can this happen at the level of the entire world in which many nations are either fighting each other or are known to be very hostile to each other? If a common and very serious, perhaps existential threat appears for all of them, then can they too get united to face this challenge which threatens them all?

Imagine for a moment that such a threat for the entire world appears from another planet. In such a situation is it not possible to visualize a situation in which the scientists of the USA and China, UK and Russia will work together in close cooperation with each other? If need be, is it not possible that the armies and the people of these countries will unite with each other to avert a common danger to the entire planet from an outside force?

Well, it so happens that a danger no less formidable and existential has already appeared for our planet and all its life-forms including humanity. The only difference is that it has not appeared from the outside and has not appeared very suddenly; it has instead accumulated inwardly for at least several decades to now emerge as an undoubted existential threat for the entire world.

So the big question is—will the world unite to face this survival threat?

This is going to be a very important question in the coming years as the existential threat troubles our world more and more.

One part of this existential threat consists of about a dozen serious environmental problems led by climate change. These environmental problems also have tipping points beyond which the situation can rapidly spiral more or less out of control. The other part consists of accumulation of over 12,500 nuclear weapons plus other weapons of mass destruction, use of AI/robotics for weapons and drift towards militarization of space.

Despite overwhelming evidence that the planet’s life-nurturing conditions are very seriously threatened, no comprehensive global response that is credible and strong enough to give hope of timely resolving of all aspects of this existential crisis or survival crisis has emerged yet. On the contrary there is considerable evidence of further rapid deterioration in some contexts.

While this is deeply depressing and discouraging, there is also one hidden source of hope in all this. As this existential crisis is very truly a very serious threat to all of us and even more particularly to the young people and children whose life will be spread over the coming decades, a very involving worldwide campaign can be launched to unite all people—and more particularly the younger people—on the overwhelming objective of resolving the survival crisis before it is too late.

This will necessarily mean that peace and disarmament issues on the one hand and environment protection issues on the other hand will become the most important issues, and since the involvement of most people in these issues on a long-term basis can be best secured in a framework of democracy and justice, these issues too will gain importance. This is exactly what out troubled world needs to heal its wounds, worries and woes.

Hence the task ahead is to quickly bring the resolving of the survival crisis to the center-stage of the world in such a way, within a framework of democracy and justice, that people of the entire world can become intensely involved in this, finding a larger and most important cause which will help them to leave behind their confusions, petty irritations, conflicts and distractions as things of the past. Similarly various nations can find a cause which is much bigger than the narrower ones which have dominated the international discourse so frequently.

Let us put the situation this way. The causes of protection of environment and biodiversity, peace and disarmament, justice and humanitarian assistance are widely regarded by most thinking people of the world to be very important, yet it has not been possible in recent times to integrate them and take them forward in a big and meaningful way. The coming to center-stage of the survival crisis can provide a really big and valuable opportunity to integrate all these causes in a very creative way so that these can advance much better and in the process also resolve the survival crisis, averting doomsday.

A very significant and encouraging start can be achieved by declaring the next decade as the Decade for Saving Earth Now. This writer has been campaigning for this for a long time and after collecting endorsements of several eminent persons for this he has forwarded this proposal to the United Nations. If this proposal is accepted, then during the decade 2025-35 a big and inspiring attempt will be made to follow and prioritize above anything else one overwhelming objective—that of saving the basic life-nurturing conditions of our planet within a framework of justice, peace and democracy. On the other hand, if this proposal is not accepted at the world level, this does not prevent any country or any province, even any city or cluster of villages, from accepting this basic idea, so that there can be very creative experimentation with what such a proposal would mean in practical terms, in terms of what steps are to be taken and what kind of values are to be spread in a public education campaign. This much is clear that spreading of different and better human values will certainly be needed if such an objective of protecting life-nurturing conditions is to get overwhelming priority, as it certainly should, given the extreme seriousness of the survival crisis and its very disturbing and distressing implications.

Bharat Dogra is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include Protecting Earth for Children, Planet in Peril, Man over Machine and A Day in 2071.