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In the latest revelation of how close the world has come to nuclear war, Daniel Ellsberg—of Pentagon Papers fame—revealed for the first time last week that the Joint Chiefs of Staff had prepared plans for nuclear war in 1958 during the Taiwan Straits Crisis, well aware that the outcome could be the total destruction of Taiwan itself. He warned that precisely such calculations were occurring today in the halls of power, pointing to the statement from the Commander of Strategic Command, Adm. Charles Richards, that nuclear war was a very real possibility. “This is the month we have to be discussing the issue, in public, of whether we should go to nuclear war over Taiwan, or Ukraine, or Syria.”

Speaking to the power of individuals to change history, Ellsberg said that it is right to be a whistleblower “when lives are at stake” and that “If a high level official—it wouldn’t have to be a cabinet official, a deputy assistant secretary would be fine—had done what Snowden and the others did, there would have been no Iraq War in 1991. We would not have been in Afghanistan for 20 years of war. These catastrophes can be changed by individuals putting the truth out, and that can be very, very powerful.” Who will stand up today?

Other potentially explosive situations exist, as the tense situation in Jerusalem shows. Removal of Palestinians from their neighborhoods, the clearing of the Al-Aqsa Mosque through the use of rubber bullets and tear gas within the holy building, rockets, and air strikes are building in intensity not seen for some years. Jordan’s Foreign Minister, speaking diplomatically in his meetings in Washington DC, was more direct in his remarks to the Arab League on Tuesday, where he warned that Israel is playing with fire.

And the attacks on China and Russia continue, as they will continue until geopolitics is defeated, or nuclear war breaks out. Hypocritical attacks on China in the name of “human rights” ring hollower and hollower, but they repeat nonetheless. The ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline is being blamed on Russia with the same level of evidence (essentially zero) that was presented for attributing the SolarWinds hack to that nation.

As the creative, most beautiful species, we inhabit a universe without limits. The beyond-stupid Malthusian dogma which states that population growth will unavoidably outstrip limited resources, recast in supposedly scientific form by the risible 1972 book Limits to Growth, and now serving as a religious-like axiom to “green” movements around the world, does not apply to any culture committed to scientific advancement, infrastructure development, improved powers of productivity, and advancing culture.

Crushing war, sanctions and geopolitics, and establishing, around the world, platforms for health, energy, transport, water, education, and culture, will ensure that we can rise to new challenges, and make this planet—and others!—a habitation in keeping with the dignity of its inhabitants.