|
|
|
November 2, 2021 Permalink for this letter. Please forward as desired. Prior letters to this New-Mexico-oriented list. Will energy monopolies and the nuclear weapons cartel control New Mexico’s future? Join us at the State Capitol this Friday, November 5, from noon to 5 pm Dear friends -- Good morning. Our last letter updated plans for a demonstration and workshops at the State Capitol this week on Friday, November 5, starting at noon and concluding at 5 pm. This letter provides further updates and a concise invitation (at this event page shortly) you can use. We have truly great speakers lined up from around the world, including:
Representative Antoinette Sedillo Lopez, one of our state government's most important environmental leaders, will help kick off events. We'll have several other local speakers; we await confirmation from some so we can't list them all here. As you can see the "center of gravity" or balance of the event has shifted from nuclear weapons to energy, climate, and resources. The nuclear weapons portion of the event -- the issue that ought to be a "no-brainer" -- has shifted to the latter part of the afternoon. We will conclude with a summation for the press at about 4:30 pm. We will post background materials on-line prior to the event here. Some of the speakers may refer to slides or illustrations. You can find them and print them out from there and bring them, or refer to them on a device you bring. We will print quite a few as well. To repeat what we said last time, we will NOT be inside the Capitol Building because we now think our numbers will be too great for proper social distancing inside. Friday in Santa Fe is expected to be sunny and mild with a light breeze, perfect for us outside. Meet on the southeast side of the building, dress warmly, bring something to drink and a snack as appropriate, and bring something to sit on! We can use the restrooms inside the Capitol. Wear a mask. Last time we asked everyone to please:
The list of endorsers is growing, but many groups and individuals are still hanging back. If you follow international events closely as we do, you will know that the risks of nuclear war involving the U.S. are growing. Flashpoints in Europe and the Western Pacific are heating up. The idiots in the White House are stumbling from crisis to crisis, making one wrong decision after another. Locally, U.S. late-empire desperation means pressure to give over more of our political autonomy, more children, more federal tax dollars, more water and other scarce resources, and more self-respect, all to an out-of-control nuclear war machine. The nuclear Pax Romana is failing from within and without, for some of the same reasons as before.
Nuclear weapons are a relatively simple problem. We know disarmament is coming. We don't know whether it will be before, during, or after a nuclear war. We know the LANL plutonium pit program will collapse, and we know approximately why. What we don't know is when, or how much damage will be done to our world and our state before that happens. Santa Fe and northern New Mexico could really be a huge force for peace between great powers, which is necessary for international progress on climate issues. Halting pit production at LANL means halting pit production for at least a decade -- the decisive decade for the future of humankind and countless species. It is one of the most consequential things Santa Feans could do on the climate issue. The other great opportunity, in which Rep. Sedillo Lopez has been such a leader, lies in curtailing oil and gas production, not in better (i.e. real) regulation of methane leaks. Which is still not happening. Decreasing methane leakage is good of course, even very good, but it doesn't go far enough. The big opportunity lies in curtailing oil production (in which, in the Permian, natural gas is the far-less-profitable byproduct). This is because New Mexico is the leading U.S. state in oil production growth, and as such is crucial in keeping overall U.S. oil production from falling. NM thus plays an important role in perpetuating the "happy motoring" fantasy. Steady or growing oil and gas production is likewise crucial to our imperial self-image and liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports, on which our imperialists hope to hook other countries, driving up prices and profits all across the industry. Meanwhile here in NM the money gushing in from oil creates the illusion that this state does not need a genuine social contract, expressed in the material terms of progressive taxation. Or even a full-time legislature. With injections of oil and gas on the one hand, and breathing in the plutonium vapors of the nuclear weapons complex on the other, our leaders are intoxicated far beyond what ought to be the legal limit -- and certainly, beyond any safe limit. The carnage if everywhere. So will 100% renewable energy provide the answer? How about "green hydrogen" ("blue hydrogen" being too stupid to even consider, but we will)? Do we have enough resources to "build back better" and resume economic growth much as before? No, no, and no. We need to talk. New Mexicans aren't getting accurate information from many leading environmental groups -- and certainly not from our corrupt nuclear labs. See you on Friday. Greg, Trish, and the rest of the Study Group gang |
|||
|
|
|||
|