“I am convinced that nuclear weapons must be abolished. Their use in a military conflict is unthinkable; using them to achieve political objectives is immoral.”
Who said this? Not your average peacenik hippie. Not even a pie-in-the-sky anti-war activist.
No, it was Mikhail Gorbachev who called for the total abolishment of nuclear weapons, in a recently released report by the renowned International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) and its US affiliate, Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR).
A-bomb on Nagasaki
The report is grimly entitled “Nuclear Famine: A Billion People at Risk—Global Impacts of Limited Nuclear War on Agriculture, Food Supplies, and Human Nutrition.” Its lead author, Dr. Ira Helfand, draws upon new modeling evidence showing that “even the relatively small nuclear arsenals of countries such as India and Pakistan could cause long lasting, global damage to the Earth’s ecosystems andthreaten hundreds of millions of people….It would not cause the extinction of the human race, but it would bring an end to modern civilization as we know it.”
Even a limited nuclear exchange would affect the production of staple foods like corn and rice worldwide. “Significant agricultural shortfalls over an extended period would almost certainly lead to panic and hoarding on an international scale, further reducing accessible food,” the report says.
It is hard to get a handle on how to stop the steam roller of global carbon consumption, which in itself is a recipe for disaster.
Nuclear weapons, by contrast, are controlled by nation states, and can be precisely counted.
Nuclear weapons can be disabled and destroyed.
There is no sane reason for the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. to maintain hundreds of nuclear warheads ready to go at a moment’s notice.
That 20th century Cold War mentality has to be consigned to the dustbin of a very dangerous, outmoded and counterproductive history.
Imagine what would be possible if instead of investing billions of dollars in nuclear weapons each year, those funds were invested in renewable energy sources, sustainable agriculture, and devising methods of increasing human health and welfare while also creating a sustainable human footprint on the planet.
There is so much to protest these days, and nuclear weapons seem beyond the ken of most ordinary citizens.
But these are our lives the generals are gambling with.
We need a concerted people’s movement to insist that the time of nuclear weaponry has come and gone.
We vote for peace and life. Tell me, Mr. Politician, are you going to vote against us?
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