The United States’ top diplomat suggested that Americans had more to fear from climate change than nuclear war, despite growing tensions with and nuclear saber-rattling by Russia over its war in Ukraine.
During an interview on 60 Minutes Australia, journalist Amelia Adams said, “Vladimir Putin is threatening nuclear war, and this month we’ve seen the hottest temperatures on this planet on record. What is the greater threat to humanity in your mind, war or climate change?”
Claiming that climate change was the “existential challenge of our times,” Blinken said:
“Well, you can’t, I think, have a hierarchy. There are some things that are front and center — the wolf at the door — including potential conflict, but there’s no doubt that climate [change] represents an existential challenge to all of us.”
July was the hottest month on record, based on climate data analyzed by the University of Maine’s Climate Reanalyzer and other climate studies. Rising temperatures are purportedly causing an increase in extreme weather events around the globe, according to The Washington Post.
Still, Blinken noted in the interview that humanity faces a “multiplicity of challenges” in addition to climate change that must be addressed, including Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, President Joe Biden has said that the United States and other Western nations would continue to provide Ukraine with military aid to use against Russia for “as long as it takes.”
The military backing includes long-range missiles and soon-to-be-shipped American fighter jets, which Moscow warned would significantly increase the risk of an all-out war between Russia and NATO. Both entities possess massive nuclear arsenals, according to the Russian news agency RT.
Russia also claims that Ukraine’s forces have attacked nuclear power plants, including the Zaporizhzhia plant in a Russian-occupied part of southeastern Ukraine. Russia alleged that Ukraine conducted the attack with the hope of causing a meltdown, likening the move to detonating “a dirty bomb,” per RT. For its part, Kyiv blamed Russia for the attack.
According to nuclear physicist Edwin Lyman, a meltdown at Zaporizhzhia could potentially be a bigger disaster than Chernobyl in 1986, as reported by The Conversation.