If the global military were a country, it would be the fourth biggest emitter in the world, ahead of Russia.
NATO member states, for example, already spend 17 times as much on the military as Russia.
Adding solar panels to a military base is easy to do, but does nothing to tackle the main challenge, which is fossil fuel consumption by military jets, ships and tanks. For now, there is no alternative, green fuel that can be produced at the scale needed and without triggering unacceptable social and environmental consequences
Russia, and only Russia could stop the war right now, but they refuse to do so every hour of every day. So their list of sins is growing larger and larger. Not only are they fucking up Ukraine, but also the whole planet by forcing almost everyone to pointlessly put even more resources into military.
Can you think of a perspective more extreme, more anti-russian than your own?
It’s a test of whether your view is an extreme view or a moderate one.
Sure, that’s easy as my perspective is rather mild, considering recent events. Here goes:
Russia is so evil that it should be immediately nuked, regardless of what the consequences would be.
(that went to the deep end, when the spirit of the question is perhaps to find more nuance – there’s certainly a lot of space between my answer above and my actual position)
Good test, generally speaking! It seems my actual view is rather moderate: I want this large and relatively powerful country not to bully its neighbors and generally increase violence in the world, and now that it is already doing that, it should immediately stop doing it.
You got me. I need to adjust the question.
I like your “bully” analogy. Russia’s problem is that it’s a small bully in a world of big bullies. It needs to steal food from smaller children or it will die. But the top tier bullies are afraid it will become a big bully and a threat if it stays healthy. They are stopping it stealing the food so it will die.
Even more accurately, you could say Russia used to be a bully but is now poor and starving. It needs to steal a dock so it can fish. But the top tier bullies…
Ukraine could alzo stop the war right now by entering peace negotiations and giving up the regions which voted for independence. NATO could also end the war by stopping to send weapons to Ukraine.
Yes, all kinds of statements are sort of true even if absurd. E.g. CCCP could defuse the South Sea situation by stopping resistance and finally capitulating to the Republic of China (also known as Taiwan).
Like you say, absurd. China has no reason to stop its resistance to imperial conquest without any fight.