CounterPunch Exclusives

CounterPunch Exclusives

During War, Climate Chaos and Even Civilization Become Ephemeral

Astral highway bombed by barbwires that dump prohibitions, misery, slavery and atrocities to human societies from above. Courtesy Evi Sarantea.

Prologue: threatening civilization

Pope Leo XIV criticized the delusions of omnipotence that US and Israel display in fighting their illegal and immoral war against Iran. Trump even threatened Iran with extinction. On April 7, 2026, he said: “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will. However, now that we have Complete and Total Regime Change, where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen, WHO KNOWS?”

The US and Iran started negotiations that did not last. “Less than a week into a cease-fire between the two countries, he threatened that the U.S. military would “finish up the little that is left of Iran” and said its water and electric plants would be “easy to hit.”

“Whether the ceasefire will hold, for how long, and in what ways,” says Pervez Hoodbhoy, physicist and member of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientist Board of Sponsors, “is for the days ahead to tell. No one—not even Donald Trump—knows the end game. But the constant is the man whose finger can push the nuclear button. A man used to quick, vacuous victories through bullying and unbridled force is rancorous, thwarted, and vengeful. He has been stymied by a recalcitrant theocratic state that has taken blow after blow, withstood the killing of its venerated leader, the bombing of its cities, the destruction of vital infrastructure, and the systematic targeting of its schools and universities.”

This official hubris, now tainted by the potential bombing of Iran by nuclear weapons, spreads like a plague. It disturbs Americans and non-Americans who have even a modicum of culture and know some history. Threatening civilization is a threat of using nuclear bombs. Such an abominable prospect is beyond diplomacy and war. It reminds me of the crusades when Christian and Moslem fanatics killed each other for centuries. But, in general, such “public discourse” turns logic off and sends fear to heavens. American Universities freeze. Public policy takes a vacation.

No wonder the discussion about climate chaos and its underlying anthropogenic causes, basically the burning of fossil fuels, are so contentious. Most of........

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