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At the beginning of October, Italy hosted the preparatory meeting of the UN Conference on Climate Change, currently taking place in Glasgow. Two weeks later Italy hosted another international event that, unlike the first widely advertised, was passed over in silence by the government: the NATO exercise of nuclear warfare Steadfast Noon in the skies over northern and central Italy. For seven days, under US command, the air forces of 14 NATO countries participated, with dual-capacity nuclear and conventional fighter-bombers deployed at the bases of Aviano and Ghedi.
At Aviano the 31st U.S. Squadron with F-16C/D fighter-bombers and B61 nuclear bombs is permanently deployed. At Ghedi. the 6th Wing of the Italian Air Force with Tornado PA-200 fighter-bombers and B61 nuclear bombs. The Federation of American Scientists confirms in 2021 that “the Italian Air Force is assigned nuclear strike missions with U.S. bombs, maintained in Italy under the control of the U.S. Air Force, the use of which in war must be authorized by the President of the United States.”
The bases of Aviano and Ghedi have been restructured to accommodate the F-35A fighters armed with the new B61-12 nuclear bombs. Last October, the final test was carried out in Nevada with the release of inert B61-12 from two F-35A fighters. Soon the new nuclear bombs will arrive in Italy: in the base of Ghedi alone 30 Italian F-35A fighters can be deployed, ready to attack under US command with 60 B61-12 nuclear bombs.
A week after participating in the nuclear warfare exercise, Italy attended the UN Climate Change Conference, chaired by the UK in partnership with Italy. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned that “there is one minute to midnight and we need to act now” against global warming that is destroying the planet. In this way, he instrumentally uses the symbolic Doomsday Clock, which in reality indicates how many minutes away we are from nuclear midnight.
A few months ago, in March, Boris Johnson himself announced the upgrading of British nuclear attack submarines: the Astute (price 2.2 billion dollars each), armed with U.S. Tomahawk IV nuclear cruise missiles with a range of 1,500 km, and the Vanguard, armed with 16 U.S. Trident D5 ballistic missiles with a range of 12,000 km, equipped with over 120 nuclear warheads. The latter will soon be replaced by the even more powerful Dreadnought class submarines.
The British nuclear attack submarines, which cross deep along the coasts of Russia, now also sail along those of China, starting from Australia to which the U.S. and Britain will provide nuclear submarines. Great Britain, which is hosting the conference to save the planet from global warming, is thus contributing to the arms race that is leading the world towards nuclear catastrophe.
Against this backdrop the promotional video of the Conference is misleading: the Dinosaur, symbol of an extinct species, from the podium of the United Nations warns humans to save their species from global warming. In fact, scientific studies confirm that dinosaurs became extinct not because of warming, but because of the cooling of the Earth after the impact of a huge meteorite that, raising clouds of dust, darkened the Sun.
Exactly what would happen after a nuclear war: in addition to catastrophic destruction and radioactive fallout on the entire planet, it would cause, in urban and forest areas, huge fires that would put in the atmosphere a blanket of sooty smoke, darkening the Sun. This would determine a climatic cooling of the duration of years: the nuclear winter. The majority of plant and animal species would become extinct, with devastating effects on agriculture. The cold and malnutrition would reduce the ability to survive of the few survivors, leading the human species to extinction.
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This article was originally published on Il Manifesto. Translated from Italian.
Manlio Dinucci, award winning author, geopolitical analyst and geographer, Pisa, Italy. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization.
Featured image: One of the F-15E Strike Eagles deployed to Aviano AB for Steadfast Noon 2021. (All images: Claudio Tramontin)
