Every Friday afternoon outside the United Nations high school students gather to demand action on the Climate Crisis. Fridays for the Future, the group co-founded by Greta Thunberg and Alexandria Villasenor, stand outdoors with signs. Their cause attracts passersby and elicits a steady flow of “Honk for the Climate” responses from drivers.
On Friday, October 25th several Grannies joined Alexandria and other students in a related but different project. Count the Nuclear Weapons Money is a campaign opposing the One Trillion dollars to be spent over the next 10 years for upgrading nuclear weapon systems. That the nuclear-owning states can be engaged in such madness needed a response. How dare they – at a time when the need to divest from fossil fuels should be the most pressing global issue? A swift climate transition in addition to all the other sustainable goals requires us to DIVEST from this path to death and destruction. There is no time to lose: the trillion should be put to address all the world’s needs to ensure a Future safe for generations of children to come. And so the Grannies met with the students and joined their protest.
Counting One Trillion – required “props” – fake one million dollar notes. One million of them and counted by hand. As of today half a trillion has been counted. Here are some of the materials the organizers had to draw attention to the project.
The campaign director, Alyn Ware, works with Parliamentarians for Nuclear Disarmament. The website is Nuclearweaponsmoney.org for more information.
Nydia Leaf
for the Granny Peace Brigade
Granny Peace Brigade 