Warheads to Windmills:
How to Pay for the Green New Deal

Timmon Wallis / NuclearBanUS

From the Introdction
“Unless we take swift and decisive action to reduce global carbon emissions, the consequences of climate change will be catastrophic. This is a life-threatening emergency that can only be adequately addressed in the timeframe we have available to us through a Green New Deal.

The existence of nuclear weapons is also a life-threatening emergency that threatens all life on this planet, and needs to be addressed with equal urgency. The world has now outlawed these weapons through the Nuclear Ban Treaty and it is up to the US to now lead the way to their total elimination.

To pay for, and implement, the Green New Deal is going to require money, skills, jobs, technological innovation and infrastructure on an unprecedented scale. To eliminate nuclear weapons requires nothing more than the political will to do so. But eliminating nuclear weapons would then release a huge amount of money, skills, jobs, technological innovation and infrastructure needed for the Green New Deal. We can solve both these global emergencies at a single stroke.”

Highlights from the Executive Summary:

• Climate change poses an existential threat to the planet
• The Green New Deal will cost the government $3 trillion over 30 years
• That is roughly what nuclear weapons will cost the US over 30 years
• Nuclear weapons also pose an existential threat to the planet
• The Green New Deal will require scientific and engineering expertise
• This expertise is being swallowed up by the nuclear weapons industry
• We can solve two existential threats to the planet with a single stroke
• Abolish nuclear weapons and use the money and manpower for the Green New Deal!

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
Three Emergencies that Threaten Our Existence

1. Climate

• We have 10 years to make drastic changes. The latest Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report gives us until 2030 to make radical cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, and until 2050 to reduce these emissions to zero (net), if we are to avoid the worst effects of climate change.
• Damage from extreme weather events cost the US $400 billion in 2018, and this cost could easily reach $3 trillion per year by 2050.
• The cost of air pollution from burning fossil fuels is estimated to be as much as $176 billion per year, or as much as $5.2 trillion total by 2050.
• There is currently not enough investment in green technologies.
• Many of the scientists needed for green innovation are tied up in nuclear weapons and other life-damaging businesses.
• Whatever we do in the US will be insufficient if the rest of the world doesn’t also make a rapid shift to a green economy, and there is currently too much animosity and competition among nations to come together to solve this problem in the time we have left.

2. Nuclear weapons

• Nuclear weapons are unthinkably dangerous to every living being on earth, whether they are detonated by accident or on purpose, no matter where.
• The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists has its “Doomsday Clock” currently set at 2 minutes to midnight.
• These weapons are now militarily obsolete; using them would be suicidal.
• They are extremely expensive, and Department of Defense figures reveal only a fraction of their full cost.
• Taxpayers are currently paying as much as $70 billion per year for nuclear weapons- related costs.
• Current plans to “modernize” the nuclear stockpile will cost the US over $1.7 trillion over the next 30 years (and even this could be an underestimate).
• The Department of Defense budget is now approaching $750 billion per year.
• Other military-related spending (tucked inside the Department of Energy budget, for example) brings the total to nearly $1 trillion for FY2020 (money that could be used for medical care, education, housing, food, and programs that sustain life). This is more than the rest of the world combined spends on the military.
• The US has built a reputation of invading and bombing other countries, assassinating opponents in other countries, interfering in other countries’ elections, pulling out of treaties, and ignoring global agreements.
• US nuclear weapons are a very explicit threat to utterly destroy any country at will.
• They undermine the very foundation of international cooperation and the goodwill essential for solving global crises like climate.

3. Inequality and injustice

• We have now reached grotesque and unsustainable levels of inequality in the US and in the world.
• The top 0.1% of US households now have the same amount of wealth as the bottom 90%.
• Globally, the richest 1% of the population now owns more than 45% of the world’s total wealth.
• This harms everyone, rich and poor alike.
  We need buy-in and participation from all demographics to solve problems that affect everyone.

• Many “solutions” to climate change continue to harm and exploit poor and indigenous communities, while enabling business as usual for wealthy polluters.

We Have the Solutions: A Green New Deal

Lawmakers and green activists join forces in Washington, DC.

• A “Green New Deal” is a mass mobilization of resources to make the changes by 2030 that can lead to a carbon neutral economy by 2050.
• This means moving swiftly to electric cars and heating and 100% clean, renewable energy by 2030, plus completing changes to industry and agriculture by 2050.
• Nothing short of this will achieve the required cuts to greenhouse gas emissions in the timescale we have left.
• A GND will require as much as $9 trillion of investment over the next 30 years, or as much as $300 billion per year.
• But that’s not a cost as much as a capital investment, since it will be recouped by future sales of electricity, electric vehicles, electric public transport fares, and other income.
• A GND would produce enormous savings, millions of jobs, and other benefits, including healthier air.
• A GND would require many green-collar workers: PV installers, wind turbine construction workers, electric car and bus production line workers, etc.
• A GND must also have a large number of experts in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) to solve some highly complex and technical problems like large-scale battery storage, more efficient solar panels, zero emission airplane fuels, etc.

The Nuclear Ban Treaty

• The US has been legally committed to eliminating nuclear weapons since the Non Proliferation Treaty (1970).
• The Nuclear Ban Treaty (2017) now outlaws everything to do with nuclear weapons.
• The Treaty creates a pathway for multilateral, verifiable nuclear disarmament.
• Unlike the climate crisis, getting rid of nuclear weapons does not require a re- tooling of the entire economy.
• The money saved can be redirected to green technologies essential for solving the climate crisis.
• Scientific talent can be redirected to crucial research needed for a GND.

Jobs, Justice and Cooperation

• A GND can provide millions of decent, well-paid jobs, lower the cost of basic necessities like heating and electricity, and subsidize the transition to a renewable economy.
• Private investment and charity cannot solve inequality and injustice – a GND must focus on lifting the most vulnerable out of poverty and providing real opportunities for working and middle class families.
• A GND for the US must include investing considerable support in other countries.
• There must be a fundamental change in the way the US treats the rest of the world.
• A GND cannot focus exclusively on what’s “best” for Americans.
• We’re all in this together, and without a strong commitment to international cooperation and solidarity, we will not survive as a species.

We can pull together as a planet, pay for a Green New Deal, eliminate nuclear weapons, and prioritize justice. This is not optional. Our children are speaking out to demand sensible action to safeguard our future.

“You are not mature enough to tell it like it is. Even that burden you leave for us children… You say you love your children above all else, and yet you are stealing their future in front of their very eyes.” – Greta Thunberg

Warheads to Windmills 2019 Report –
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