Introducing The Earthling!
Plus: Chinaphobia goes nuclear; Climate change and nuclear power; etc.
Welcome to the The Earthling! This is the first issue of a re-christened and revamped version of the Nonzero Newsletter’s Friday edition, formerly known as The Week in Blob (or, as its friends called it, TWIB).
Our Friday edition has always had a global perspective. It has chronicled, in particular, the damage done around the globe by the US foreign policy establishment (hence the name The Week in Blob). If Blob-bashing is a favorite spectator sport of yours, you’ll be happy to hear that our Friday edition will continue to do that kind of chronicling. But US foreign policy isn’t the only thing damaging prospects for a bright future for Planet Earth. The Earthling will focus more broadly than TWIB did on challenges facing humankind and on what we can do about them.
Fully fleshing out that last sentence would involve spelling out the meaning of “The Apocalypse Aversion Project,” which I put at the center of NZN’s mission statement a year ago, when the paid edition of the newsletter was launched. But since regular readers already know what AAP denotes, and other readers have various documents they can consult for illumination, I’ll forgo that exposition and take a different approach to fleshing out the spirit of The Earthling.
Namely: I’ll do a short exegesis on The Earthling’s logo, above—which was designed by NZN’s graphic designer (and NZN’s various other things), Clark McGillis. So here’s an FAQ about the logo (or “banner,” as we used to say back in the age of physical magazines):
1) Why the art deco motif? Two reasons: (a) I like art deco! (b) Art deco embodies a kind of hopefulness about the future, and so does the Earthling. Hopefulness isn’t the same as unqualified optimism, much less blind optimism—neither of which this newsletter can be accused of having historically evinced. Indeed, the name the Apocalypse Aversion Project implies that, should the project fail, planet-wide cataclysm is a real possibility. But that name also implies the distinct possibility of success. And The Earthling will embody the belief that if earthlings act wisely, the future will be a good place to be.
2) Why the macho motif? Oh, you mean the Adonis-like figure? Once again, there are two reasons: (a) Adonis-like figures are pretty common in art deco; (b) Part of the idea of The Earthling is that humankind possesses much more collective strength than it has been realizing lately. People—and peoples, and nations—have frittered away much of their strength by directing it against one another. You know: world wars, cold wars, regional wars, civil wars, wars of words, World of Warcraft, etc.
If we earthlings can put some of that intramural fighting aside and work together, we can avert the planetary perils that cloud the horizon. We are mighty! At least, we are mighty when we’re not doing stupid shit. Which brings us to:
3) What’s with the celestial bodies—are they supposed to be planets orbiting around the mighty Earthling? No. After all, planets revolve around the sun, not the Earth—and I definitely don’t think that the way to save the world is to adopt a pre-Copernican world view. Rather, the golden orbs, in conjunction with the golden lines, represent an astrolabe. Astrolabes go back to the time of—well, of Adonis—and embody humankind’s age-old attempt to answer that age-old question: Um, where exactly are we?
My view is that if we can get people properly oriented—get them to understand the situation planet Earth is in, and the critical phase of human history we’re living through—we can get them to work together, to realize the collective strength of our species and channel it toward the common good. (Fun fact about astrolabes: they can give you your latitude if you know what time it is, and they can give you the time of day if you know your latitude. Reminds me of the NZN piece I wrote last spring describing our humankind’s predicament as a critical intersection of time and space. If you want to see the meaning of the Apocalypse Aversion Project spelled out in a very cosmic context, that piece is the piece to read.)
If I had to do a four-word gloss on the Earthling logo, some candidates would be: (a) collective strength through reason and (b) planetary salvation through awareness.
And speaking of salvation (kind of): One premise of the Apocalypse Aversion Project, and hence one cornerstone of this whole newsletter, not just the Friday edition, is that becoming a better global citizen can make you a happier person—even (if you want to get all mystical about it) a more spiritually fulfilled person. Contributing more to the planet’s future welfare can contribute to your own well being and self-actualization right now.
At any rate—whether or not you buy that pitch—The Earthling will be devoted to giving you information that can help you become a better global citizen.
Well, now that I’ve spent so much time talking about what The Earthling will be, there’s not much time left to show you what the Earthling will be. Which is OK, because The Earthling will evolve the way earthlings evolved, via trial and error—so I don’t really know, in a fine-grained sense, what The Earthling is going to be.
But we do have a few Earthlingesque items for you below. As it happens, they all have to do with either nuclear weapons or nuclear energy. But that’s a coincidence. As a rule The Earthling won’t be monothematic. If you don’t believe me, just tune in next week.
Chinaphobia goes nuclear
This week Robert Burns of the Associated Press brought earthlings some bad news: It’s time to abandon the once-flourishing hope that Joe Biden will make America’s nuclear posture less menacing—by, say, reducing the number of nuclear warheads in the US arsenal or adopting a “no first use” policy. Burns cited several developments that have put the Biden White House in a hawkish mood on nuclear matters, including last year’s disclosures about China’s “expanding nuclear force.”
Meanwhile, over at the Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, Joseph Cirincione underscores the irony of responding to a Chinese nuclear buildup by keeping America’s nuclear posture militant: