Week 44: Peace Pays the Price, Trillions for War, Pennies for Climate at COP

Dear all,

What Is Wrong with Peace?

This question hit me like a spear. I was talking to one of my children about their future education, and the conversation turned existential. My daughter explained that her generation—or at least her friends—don’t see hope for change as realistic or even remotely doable. They see wars, floods, inequality, unchecked artificial intelligence, pandemics, and authoritarian rulers threatening democracy and dismantling civil societies. She wasn’t doomsaying; she was laying out facts, backed by historical and current evidence.

As a parent, you instinctively go on the defensive, pointing out the good side, the light in the darkness, humanity’s resilience in overcoming even the most impossible challenges, and all the good things in life. She listened quietly, looking back at me as if none of it made an impression. Then she said, “Being a pacifist is probably the most radical thing nowadays.”

A news alert about devastating floods in Spain shifted our conversation. As much as I wanted to answer her questions, we silently agreed to drop the subject and instead talk about the trees around the café. Our conversation meandered for hours, me feeling hollow, searching for words of comfort and healing, only to realize that my urge to reassure was more for my own solace than hers.

“What is wrong with peace?” The question stayed with me. There is nothing wrong with peace itself—it’s that those promoting peace are often silenced, marginalized, or drowned out. We live in an age of war mongering. More guns. More soldiers. More advanced weapons. The narrative is that we are under attack, our very existence on the line. And just as with the climate crisis, where people know the consequences yet respond with complacency, so it is with peace. Yes, we say we want peace, yet somehow, we’re not willing to fight for it.

Is it naïve, aggressive, or even foolish to write, “Enough of the killing”? To wish to end all wars and conflicts? Or to ask, is wanting to stop the violence a foolish, idealistic dream? Can we at least begin by talking about peace?

Between 2013 and 2021, the richest countries spent $9.45 trillion on the military, amounting to 56.3% of total global military spending ($16.8 trillion), compared to an estimated $243.9 billion on additional climate finance. Military spending has increased by 21.3% since 2013. According to a recent report, the world’s wealthiest nations are spending 30 times more on military power than on addressing the climate crisis. The research found that the most polluting nations spent $9.45 trillion (€9.12 trillion) on their armed forces between 2013 and 2021, compared to an estimated $243.9 billion (€235.28 billion) on climate finance for the world’s most vulnerable countries.