Erik Kristofferson, Climate | Defense Minister: – I have to apologize to my children

The purpose of the conference was to highlight issues that will be important to the armed forces in the future, including how climate change will affect our regional and global security, as well as the ability of the armed forces to adapt to the new security policy landscape.

According to Kristoffersen, leaders of large organizations must be aware of their responsibilities and realize that we are now living in a historical time.

– We have to understand that. We must apologize. I also have to apologize to my children. And the reason I think we should apologize is because there are two things that I think we shouldn’t be discussing in 2022, Kristofferson says. FFI’s Climate and Security Conference.

– The first is that nuclear weapons are again on the agenda. We are talking about nuclear weapons. Russia actively uses nuclear weapons. They are testing their nuclear weapons. Usually in the fall, he says.

Kristofferson also points to Russian nuclear weapons exercises that took place before the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the invasion of Ukraine in February of this year.

It has a deterrent effect. Leave us alone. It is a signal that we should not intervene by threatening to use the one weapon system that does more than it promises. It is completely devastating, the defense minister stressed.

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Disappointed not to disarm

Kristofferson then expressed his disappointment with the stagnation of disarmament agreements between the nuclear powers in recent decades. Numerous disarmament agreements have been terminated in recent decades, most recently this month when planned disarmament talks between the United States and Russia were known to have been indefinitely postponed.

– The fact that we have not made progress after 1990 in clearly reducing the number of nuclear weapons and overcoming it here is an existential threat to humanity, he says.

In the 1980s, there were approximately 70,000 nuclear weapons in the nuclear arsenal of the major powers. Disarmament has led to a dramatic decline, but the Swedish peace research institute SIPRI fears that disarmament is about to be upended.

SIPRI concludes in a Report That there is a great danger that the world is on the way to a new nuclear weapon. Even today, there are approximately 12,700 nuclear weapons distributed among the nine nuclear powers, the Stockholm Institute estimates.

The Secretary of Defense is clear that deterrence with nuclear weapons is effective.

Sadly we’re still there. Fortunately, it hasn’t been used since 1945, but it’s so destructive that the discussion needs to take place. The defense secretary says it’s an existential threat.

Nuclear weapons have only been used once in a war. It happened in August 1945 when the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

– I think we should listen to Greta Thunberg

The Chief of Defense also says developments with climate and the environment constitute the second existential threat we face in 2022.

– There are no potential threats worse than what happens with the climate and the environment. It’s an existential threat to our planet, and we don’t take it seriously. We must apologize for that because we definitely didn’t do enough. This requires drastic action, he says.

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The Chief of Defense said that climatic and environmental developments will affect the entire security situation and that climate change will place new demands on the future security policy of the Armed Forces. He points to climate change as a creeping threat that we have to take seriously.

– Before everything goes awry, it will lead to great unrest, he says.

– We must think on a larger scale about the tasks of the armed forces so that we can deal with the consequences of the climate changes that are taking place.

With this dystopian background, which I think is quite real, I think there are also opportunities if we make the right choices and actually do something, and not just talk about it. I think we should listen to Greta Thunberg because she doesn’t just represent herself. It represents an impatient generation that expects us to do something, and if we do nothing, there will be serious challenges ahead, he says.

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg has made a name for herself in the global climate debate. Already in 2018, she started a school strike for the climate, which led to the international movement “Fridays for Future”.

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Honestly praises the Minister of Defense

Grethe Lauglo Østern of Norwegian People’s Aid has long been a committed voice in the fight against nuclear weapons. She commends the Chief of Defense for speaking out about the nuclear threat facing the world.

– I think this is very well said because we are totally starved of honest and honest talk about the threat posed by nuclear weapons. The Chief of Defense speaks honestly and openly about his feelings and thoughts on nuclear weapons. He also talks about saying sorry to his children, which indicates that it means something to him, Ostern tells Netavien.

– He expresses his impatience over the non-disarmament of nuclear weapons, which we do not hear from the government. Then he calls for an understanding of the crisis. Understanding the crisis is not there, says Ostern, and this is real and dangerous.

Ostern says Kristofferson is in no way challenging government policy on nuclear weapons with his remarks.

– But what he says is still exciting, because we don’t hear the prime minister nor the foreign minister talking about the need for denuclearization in general or that they want to apologize to the children for not doing enough, you say.