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This year’s annual update to World BEYOND War’s Mapping Militarism project uses a completely new mapping system developed by our Technology Director Marc Eliot Stein. We think it does a better job than ever of displaying the data of warmaking and peacemaking on maps of the world. And it makes use of new data reporting on the latest trends.

When you visit the Mapping Militarism site, you will find seven sections linked across the top, most of which contain multiple maps listed down the lefthand side. Each map’s data can be seen in map view or list view, and the data in list view can be ordered by any column you click on. Most of the maps/lists have data for a number of years, and you can scroll back through the past to see what’s changed. Every map includes a link to the source of the data.

The maps included are as follows:

I would like to announce the publication of a book, which discusses the relationships between water and life. The book may be freely downloaded and circulated from the following link:

http://eacpe.org/app/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Water-by-John-Scales-Av…

The United Nations' World Water Day

On its home-page for World Water Day the United Nations points out the following facts:

“Today, 1 in 3 people live without safe drinking water.

“By 2050, up to 5.7 billion people could be living in areas where water is scarce for at least one month a year.

“Climate-resilient water supply and sanitation could save the lives of more than 360,000 infants every year.

“If we limit global warming to 1.5 degrees C above pre-industrial levels, we could cut climate-induced water stress by up to 50%.

“Extreme weather has caused more than 90% of major disasters over the last decade.

BANGKOK, Thailand -- President Biden's announced withdrawal from
Afghanistan will be the second time since 1989 that the U.S. retreats
from that country -- and twice after years of boosting war but losing
control over Islamist insurgents.

When previously enthusiastic, then-Senator Joe Biden arrived in Kabul
in January 2002 in response to 9/11, he voiced a gung-ho call for U.S.
military involvement.

"Make it clear, I'm not talking about [international] peace keepers.
I'm not talking about [U.N.] blue helmets. I'm talking about people
who shoot and kill people," the senator told reporters on January 12,
2002, standing in front of the embassy in a cold, clear, bone-dry
winter breeze.

"I'm talking about people who are a bunch of bad asses who will come
in here with guns, and understand that they don't have to check with
anybody before they return fire.

"I am talking about pursuers. I'm talking about a tough, rough,
militarily controlled -- no 'sign-off by' -- no diplomatic requirement
to determine whether they can return fire.

Start: Thursday, May 06, 2021 • 1:00 PM • Eastern Daylight Time (US & Canada) (GMT-04:00)

End: Thursday, May 06, 2021 • 2:30 PM • Eastern Daylight Time (US & Canada) (GMT-04:00)

Host Contact Info: David, david@worldbeyondwar.org

Basically, Derek Chauvin was convicted of enforcing the status quo. Because his behavior was caught on video — his knee on George Floyd’s neck, oh my God, choking him to death — and looked so disturbing to most of the public, official American “justice” had to take some sort of action.

He became a scapegoat.

his year’s Earth Day summit (April 22) and Joe Biden’s pledge to halve American carbon emissions by 2030 come with the 35th commemoration (April 26) of the Chernobyl catastrophe.

Together they evoke atomic power’s epic failure in at least 80 different ways:

When Reese Erlich died in early April, we lost a global reporter who led by example. During five decades as a progressive journalist, Reese created and traveled an independent path while avoiding the comfortable ruts dug by corporate media. When people in the United States read or heard his reporting from more than 50 countries, he offered windows on the world that were not tinted red-white-and-blue. Often, he illuminated grim consequences of U.S. foreign policy.

The first memorable conversation I had with Reese was somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean on the way to Iraq in September 2002—as it turned out, six months before the U.S. invasion. He was one of the few journalists covering a small delegation, including Congressman Nick Rahall and former Senator James Abourezk, which the Institute for Public Accuracy sponsored in an attempt to establish U.S.-Iraqi dialogue and avert the looming invasion.

The annual Academy Awards ceremony – wherein a pack of swag bag schlepping celebs clad in brand name couture pat themselves on the back on live TV, while thanking their agents, hair stylists, managers, makeup artists, etc. – is set for Sunday, April 25. To be fair, a number of films competing for those coveted golden statuettes do have artistic excellence and/or social significance. The 1960s/70s New Left is ready for its close up, with the Black Panther-themed Judas and the Black Messiah and The Trial of the Chicago 7, about the antiwar movement, each nominated for six Oscars, including for Best Picture. Time, a timely meditation on African Americans and our criminal (in)justice system, is contending for Best Documentary.

When Democrats were handed the U.S. Congress in 2006 to end the war on Iraq, and they escalated it in order to “oppose” it in the 2008 elections, it’s possible some of them were not being completely forthright and respectful toward you, their loyal supporters.

When the Democratic legislature in California passes single-payer healthcare whenever it can count on a Republican governor to veto it, but never during Democratic governorships, or when the U.S. Congress ends the war on Yemen when it can count on a Trump veto but not when Biden is in, it’s possible that certain politicians’ expressions of concern for people lacking healthcare or people lacking bomb-free skies are less than completely sincere.