{"id":71953,"date":"2021-06-10T09:13:17","date_gmt":"2021-06-10T07:13:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sonnenseite.com\/?p=71953"},"modified":"2021-06-10T09:13:17","modified_gmt":"2021-06-10T07:13:17","slug":"nuclear-weapons-spending-increased-by-1-4-billion-in-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sonnenseite.com\/en\/politics\/nuclear-weapons-spending-increased-by-1-4-billion-in-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"nuclear weapons spending increased by $1.4 billion in 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

$72.6 billion is how much nine nuclear armed countries spent on their nuclear weapons as the pandemic spread in 2020 and a global treaty banning nuclear weapons took full effect. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report \u201cComplicit: 2020 Global Nuclear Weapons Spending<\/a>\u201d details the spending of these nine countries on their arsenals, the companies that profited, and the lobbyists hired to keep nuclear weapons in business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This amounts to $137,666 every minute, and (after adjusting for inflation) represents an increase of $1.4 billion from last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"ICAN.org
\u00a9 ICAN.org | Report<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Read the Report > <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U.S. spent three times more than the next in line- a whopping $37.4 billion. China was the only other country crossing the ten billion mark, spending $10.1 billion.  Russia had the third highest spending at $8 billion, though the U.K.\u2019s $6.2 billion and the French $5.7 billion weren\u2019t so far behind.  India, Israel, Pakistan also each spent over a billion on their arsenals, while North Korea spent $667 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why would these countries spend so much, in the midst of the worst global pandemic in a century? The report shows that it\u2019s not security interests, or even a resumption of so-called great power competition driving this increased spending, it\u2019s business.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After digging through thousands of contracts, annual reports and lobby disclosures, the report shows a dozen companies got $27.7 billion in new and modified contracts to work on nuclear weapons. Those companies then turned around and spent $117 million lobbying decision makers to spend more money on defense. And they also spent upwards of $10 million funding most of the major think tanks that research and write about policy solutions about nuclear weapons. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is time\u00a0to expose this shady cycle\u00a0and end this outrageous waste of public funds on weapons of mass destruction. Help us spread the word.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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