It’s not the bullet in a gun
aimed an enemy. It’s not even the sticks of dynamite a suicide bomber has
strapped on. It’s one nuclear weapon. Just one is all that is necessary for
death on an unfathomably large scale. Sisters, brothers, mothers, and fathers
vaporized into nothing more than ash. The next generation will have to grow up
in small bomb shelters and never know what sun or snow is. That’s the total
extinction of life on Earth at the touch of the button. Welcome to the
proliferation future.
With
the Cold War over, the threat of a full scale nuclear attack still remains
higher than ever. There are over 23,000 nuclear weapons in the world, 92 of
them have been reported either lost or stolen, and all of them belong solely to
nine countries. The United States and Russia already own a staggering 97
percent of them while terrorist groups are trying to synthesize nuclear weapons
of their own. If they succeed or if a single stolen nuclear weapon falls into
their hands, the consequences will be fatal. Not only will hundreds of thousands of people in the
vicinity of the blast die in a heartbeat, the deadly radiation from the blast
will contaminate the land and people for thousands of square kilometers leaving
them marred for many years to come. Consider the aftereffects of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki —which are still being felt today — just a small taste of what is to
come.
Currently, nations use these weapons as bargaining chips
because they are perceived to be destructive on such a large scale that
other
nations are obligated to agree to the former’s terms or risk getting
bombed
into oblivion. | Such a tactic is useless because it only sparks futile
arms
races between nations in order to gain the upper hand, which ultimately
increases the likelihood of a global catastrophe. More importantly, if
push
came to shove and a country were to be bombed, international treaties
and
partnerships would only pull the world into a nuclear World War
Three, and ensuring mutual destruction of
the planet, in which case there is no victor. Other nations claim that
nuclear
weapons are forms of protection, but if they are aimed and ready to be
fired at
other countries in a moment’s notice, it is no longer considered a form
of
protection but rather open signs of aggression.
If
nuclear proliferation continues on and more countries including failed
states
and states prone to ethnic violence gain nuclear weapons, tensions will
continue to mount until a nation feels compelled to use such a
destructive
force against their enemies. We as a society cannot wait for that to
happen. We
cannot let millions of innocent people that never wronged anyone in
their lives
to be vaporized into seven-mile-high mushroom clouds or die slow and
agonizing
deaths from radiation poisoning while their vulnerable children watch
from
bedsides scared and alone. We cannot let our future generation be filled
with
potential presidents, Nobel winning scientists, artists, musicians, and
engineers greet a cold, cruel world tainted with nuclear fallout
helplessly
watching their talents atrophy. Stop nuclear proliferation. We are only
making
ourselves more susceptible to attacks if we continue. We will only be
safe when the number of nuclear weapons in
the world drops to zero. Please help support Global Zero.
www.globalzero.org . . . . . . | |