Nuclear War and Environmental Catastrophe

Nuclear War and Environmental Catastrophe is a focused discussion on the existential threats of our time, and their points of intersection since World War II. Both nuclear war and environmental catastrophe have the potential for similar outcomes: a world made uninhabitable by the scarcity of water, food and livable land.

While a nuclear strike would require action, environmental catastrophe is partially defined by willful inaction in response to human-induced climate change. This short book, a series of interviews with Noam Chomsky by Laray Polk, exposes the economic matrix of dominant countries and the failure of the US to act in the face of exhaustive evidence. Denial of the facts is only half the equation, other factors contributing to degradation of the environment include extreme techniques for the extraction of remaining carbon deposits, the elimination of agricultural land for biofuel and the construction of dams, and the destruction of forests that are crucial carbon sequestration.

On the subject of current nuclear tensions, Chomsky revisits the long-established option of a nuclear-weapon-free zone (NWFZ) in the Middle East, a proposal set in motion through a joint Egyptian-Iranian General Assembly resolution in 1974.

This book serves as a warning that further postponement of nuclear disarmament and the productive search for sustainable energy will condemn the human species to catastrophic conditions in the very near future.

“There are two problems for our species’ survival—nuclear war and environmental catastrophe, ” says Noam Chomsky in this new book on the two existential threats of our time and their points of intersection since World War II.

While a nuclear strike would require action, environmental catastrophe is partially defined by willful inaction in response to human-induced climate change. Denial of the facts is only half the equation. Other contributing factors include extreme techniques for the extraction of remaining carbon deposits, the elimination of agricultural land for bio-fuel, the construction of dams, and the destruction of forests that are crucial for carbon sequestration.

On the subject of current nuclear tensions, Chomsky revisits the long-established option of a nuclear-weapon-free zone (NWFZ) in the Middle East, a proposal set in motion through a joint Egyptian Iranian General Assembly resolution in 1974.

Intended as a warning, Nuclear War and Environmental Catastrophe is also a reminder that talking about the unspeakable can still be done with humor, with wit and indomitable spirit.

NOAM CHOMSKY was born in Philadelphia in 1928. He studied at the University

of Pennsylvania where he received his PhD in linguistics in 1955. He joined the

staff at MIT and was appointed Institute Professor in 1976, gaining international

renown for his contributions to the understanding of language acquisition. He

became famous as a radical intellectual with the publication of his book,

Manufacturing Consent, in 1988. Chomsky has written and lectured widely on

linguistics, philosophy, intellectual history, contemporary issues, international

affairs and US foreign policy. His views have profoundly influenced both scientific

and political thought around the world. LARAY POLK was born in Durant,

Oklahoma and now lives in Dallas, Texas. She is a multimedia artist and writer.

Her articles and investigative reports have appeared in the Dallas Morning News,

D Magazine, and In These Times. As a 2009 grant recipient from The Investigative

Fund at The Nation Institute, she produced stories on the political entanglements

and compromised science behind the establishment of a radioactive waste

disposal site in Texas, situated in close proximity to the Ogallala Aquifer.