Take action: War costs us the Earth

You are invited to take part in this year’s Global Days Against Military Spending (GDAMS). The big day of action is around the corner: Monday, April 24.

That’s when the well-respected Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) is releasing new data on global military spending. The GDAMs team uses the annual occasion to conduct online actions and media work.

This year, GDAMS has launched the Appeal ‘War Costs Us the Earth” to demand governments across the world major cuts in military spending and the redirection of those funds to properly addressing the climate crisis.

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Here is the full statement:

GDAMS 2023 Appeal: War Costs Us the Earth

Our governments currently spend more than US$2 trillion on militarisation, but military expansion is inconsistent with efforts to reach essential emissions targets and will exacerbate, not stem, the climate emergency. War and armed conflict lead not only to death and destruction, but also to environmental devastation and climate breakdown. Although our governments may argue that such “defence” spending is necessary, it will ultimately render us defenceless in the face of the existential threat posed by the climate crisis. (…)

Funds that could be used to mitigate or reverse climate breakdown, and to promote peaceful conflict transformation, disarmament and global justice initiatives, are instead being spent on militarising an already over-militarised world. (…)

We urgently call on governments to:

• Change course and focus on rapid, deep cuts to military spending, driving an arms race and fuelling war;
• Demilitarize public policy including policies designed to tackle the climate crisis;
• Implement human and common-security-centered policies that protect people and planet and not the profit-driven agenda of the arms and fossil fuel industries;
• Create governance structures and alliances based on mutual trust and understanding, cooperation and true diplomacy, where conflict is resolved through dialogue, not war.

The opportunity cost of doing otherwise just can’t get any higher.

War costs us the Earth.

You can read the full statement on the website: http://demilitarize.org