back from the brink
Our Budget Priorities Should Reflect the People's Agenda, Not Hasten Nuclear Oblivion
This fiscal year 2024, the United States will spend $94.485 billion on all nuclear weapons programs, an increase of over $4 billion from last year.
Today, April 15, is the day we fund our nation's priorities as determined by our elected leaders.
Last month the United Way released its 2023 211 Impact Survey of roughly 16 million requests, offering insights into the trends and challenges faced by households and communities across the country. Topping the list were housing, utilities, and food assistance as the top needs of people seeking support nationwide. Similarly, a Gallop poll released last month listed the economy, inflation, hunger and homelessness, and healthcare costs in the top five priorities.
Where do nuclear weapons fit in? They're not even on the radar of most people, and particularly not mainstream news outlets. Yet this fiscal year 2024, the United States will spend $94.485 billion on all nuclear weapons programs. This is an increase of over $4 billion from last year. This expenditure is for weapons that can never be used without posing a threat to all of humanity. Yet these expenditures continue to grow out of control, year over year. It is fueled by the mythology of nuclear deterrence, the major driver of the arms race. Not to be outdone, every country feels driven to exceed the nuclear forces and capabilities of their adversaries. We spiral out of control toward nuclear oblivion, ever increasing the potential for nuclear war either by intent, miscalculation, or accident.
The nuclear abolition movement is here and growing.
Nuclear weapons threaten us every moment of every day. There are 12,119 weapons in the global nuclear arsenals. We know that the use of even a tiny fraction, less than one-half of 1% of these weapons over a single populated region, could cause catastrophic climate change lasting years and potentially putting 2 billion people at risk.
With this nuclear famine knowledge, the new arms race shifts from the paradigm of (MAD) Mutually Assured Destruction to (SAD) Self Assured Destruction. These weapons rob our communities of precious resources that could be redirected to the many needs that our communities cry out for. The very existence of nuclear weapons and programs is an economic, environmental, social, and racial justice issue. Yet this is a situation that does not have to be.
Back From the Brink is a growing movement across this nation. It calls for a no-first-use policy, ending sole presidential authority to launch nuclear weapons, ending "hair trigger alert," canceling the plans to replace the entire arsenal with new weapons, and most importantly, resumption of negotiations for a multilateral, verifiable treaty for the elimination of nuclear weapons. This campaign is supported by U.S. House Resolution 77, which embraces the goals and provisions of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and each of the precautionary measures in the Back From the Brink campaign. The resolution currently has 44 cosponsors in the U.S. House of Representatives.
This past year has seen heightened awareness of the threat of nuclear weapons moving into the mainstream with the release of the Academy Award-winning film Oppenheimer;The New York Times series "At the Brink," with an in-depth overview of the risk and potential impacts of nuclear war; last week's Boston Globe editorial "We Need to Start Worrying About the Bomb;" and the recently published books Nuclear War: A Scenario by Annie Jacobsen and Countdown: The Blinding Future of Nuclear Weapons by Sarah Scoles.
The nuclear abolition movement is here and growing. It is time for our budget priorities to reflect the people's agenda and to abolish nuclear weapons before they abolish us.
Your Doctor Is Worried: Our Prescription for Survival
This month in an unprecedented move, over 100 international medical journals came together in a joint editorial realizing the urgency of the moment to warn about the dangers of nuclear war.
Seventy-eight years ago the global arms race was ignited with the development and use of the first atomic bombs that were dropped over the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In a flash, mankind had perfected the means of destroying all life.
From that moment to the present day, medical science has grappled with the devastating medical and humanitarian consequences of nuclear war. From the unique and lasting injuries of atomic weapons caused by radionuclide exposure to the universal injuries caused by massive burns, to the discovery of strontium-90 in human baby teeth resulting from atmospheric testing, and ultimately working with climate scientists to reveal the most dangerous effects of catastrophic climate change that would follow even a limited regional nuclear war, the medical community has fought for the elimination of these weapons.
In a world threatened by climate change, which in and of itself makes nuclear war more probable with competition over dwindling natural resources across the planet, the continued existence of around 12,500 of these weapons is untenable. Nuclear war, either by intent, miscalculation, mistake, or cyber attack, is an ever more real possibility. These facts resulted in the Bulletin of AtomicScientists moving their infamous Doomsday Clock, representing nuclear apocalypse, to 90 seconds to midnight this year.
“The nuclear armed states must eliminate their nuclear arsenals before they eliminate us.”
This daunting reality, while overwhelming, can and is providing an opportunity for individuals, nations, NGO’s, and civil society across the planet to become aware and mobilize given the real possibility that these weapons can, and must, be abolished. Internationally, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, ICAN, is working for all remaining nations to ratify the U.N. Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Simultaneously, civil society is working in the nuclear states to build support for the elimination of these weapons. In the United States, the grassroots Back from the Brink movement continues to gain momentum and build support for the abolition of these weapons and the precautionary measures necessary until that goal is realized. This effort has resulted in H. Res 77 sponsored by Rep. James McGovern (D-Mass.), and currently has 36 cosponsors in Congress.
For the past eight decades, the medical community has worked to raise awareness without inciting paralysis, or a sense of futility, about the risks of these weapons. This month in an unprecedented move, over 100 international medical journals came together in a joint editorial realizing the urgency of the moment to heed the message of doctors the world over by stating, “We call on health professionals to alert the public and our leaders to this major danger to public health and the essential life support systems of the planet—and urge action to prevent it.”
Furthermore, they endorsed critical components of the Back from the Brink movement in saying
We now call on health professional associations to inform their members worldwide about the threat to human survival and to join with the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) to support efforts to reduce the near term risks of nuclear war, including three immediate steps on the part of nuclear armed states and their allies: First, adopt a no first use policy; second, take their nuclear weapons off hair trigger alert; and, third, urge all states involved in current conflicts to pledge publicly and unequivocally that they will not use nuclear weapons in these conflicts. We further ask them to work for a definitive end to the nuclear threat by supporting the urgent commencement of negotiations among the nuclear armed states for a verifiable, timebound agreement to eliminate their nuclear weapons in accordance with commitments in the non-proliferation treaty, opening the way for all nations to join the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
The editorial continued by stating,
The danger is great and growing. The nuclear armed states must eliminate their nuclear arsenals before they eliminate us. The health community played a decisive part during the Cold War and more recently in the development of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. We must take up this challenge again as an urgent priority, working with renewed energy to reduce the risks of nuclear war and to eliminate nuclear weapons.
As the world observes this 78th anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the opportunity and moment is at hand to finally abolish this threat to future generations. This must be our response when our children’s children ask us what we did when our world was threatened. This is our prescription for survival.
Oppenheimer: From Trinity to Doomsday
The service that the new Christopher Nolan film has brought forth, providing public awareness about nuclear weapons, demands that we cannot remain silent.
I attended this weekend’s Los Angeles opening of Christopher Nolan’s epic film, Oppenheimer. This must-see film provides a critical opening for an essential conversation about nuclear weapons and their role in our security and the fate of the planet. The film, notably released 78 years to the week after the Trinity test, chronicles Robert J. Oppenheimer’s life, both personal and scientific, from his vetting to direct the Los Alamos laboratory for the Manhattan Project, to the development of the first atomic bomb and through the difficult subsequent years and the active campaign to smear him.
The Film
The film does a remarkable job of raising public awareness in presenting the theoretical physicist’s brilliance and the struggles he and fellow project scientists dealt with in the application of that knowledge in developing the atomic bomb, its potential ramifications and risks, and even remorse that followed the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings that resulted in the deaths of roughly 200,000, mainly civilians. Close friend, colleague, and fellow physicist Isidor Isaac Rabi expressed reticence before joining the project, fearing their work would result in the “Culmination of three centuries of physics to be a weapon of mass destruction.”
Oppenheimer voiced fear that failing to immediately contain these weapons would lead to an unstoppable arms race. Realizing that this containment would not be a reality in the immediate aftermath of the Trinity test, Oppenheimer said, speaking from the Bhagavad Gita Hindu sacred script, “Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.” The film’s end recalls an earlier conversation with Oppenheimer questioning their calculations of the nuclear chain reaction set in place by the nuclear explosion possibly igniting the atmosphere, saying, “We thought we might start a chain reaction that might destroy the world.” Albert Einstein responds, “What of it?” To this, Oppenheimer responds, “I believe we did.”
Today’s reality
That prescient fear plays out in today’s reality. We have entered a new arms race in recent years with the modernization of all global nuclear arsenals. With current global arsenals estimated at 12,500 weapons, many up to 80 times more powerful than the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the danger faced by all of humanity is greater than ever. This led the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists to reset their infamous Doomsday Clock this year in January to 90 seconds till midnight, with midnight representing nuclear Armageddon, the closest it has been since the dropping of the atomic bombs.
We now recognize that these bombs are far more dangerous than we had previously thought. The tremendous firestorms and radioactivity released with their explosion is only a small part of their devastation. While not burning up the atmosphere as feared by the Manhattan Project scientists, we now recognize the subsequent catastrophic climate change could lead to a global famine, following even a limited regional nuclear war, using less than 1/2% of the global arsenal. For example, a nuclear war between India and Pakistan, who have been on a war footing for decades, using 100 Hiroshima-size weapons, would potentially kill 2 billion people, or roughly 20% of the world’s population, by causing a nuclear famine. This has shifted the Cold War MAD doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction to SAD, Self Assured Destruction, as any nuclear war threatens all of humanity, particularly those most vulnerable and food insecure.
If we are to survive, we must change the way we think and critically ask what role nuclear weapons play in our security.
This knowledge goes unheeded by global leaders, with the United States alone spending over $90.3 billion in tax dollars this fiscal year, or ~$172 thousand dollars every minute, on all nuclear weapons programs as we work to rebuild our entire nuclear arsenal with enhanced nuclear weapons. The myth of deterrence is at the core the main driver of this buildup. Not to be outdone, every other nuclear nation is following our lead, bringing us closer to nuclear apocalypse. We sleepwalk toward the fear expressed by Einstein when he said, “The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking, and we thus drift toward unparalleled catastrophe.” With this knowledge, if we are to survive, we must change the way we think and critically ask what role nuclear weapons play in our security. In reality, they do nothing to advance our security while robbing our communities of precious resources. Rather, they are the greatest threat to it.
The Demand
This is a scenario that does not have to be. We have created nuclear weapons, and we know how to dismantle them. At the height of the Cold War we had over 60,000 weapons and today have 12,500. What is needed is the political will supported by the public demand to work toward a verifiable, time-bound, complete elimination of these weapons. While it’s easy to feel paralyzed and fall into a state of psychic numbing, as described by physician and abolitionist, Dr. Helen Caldicott, there is much that is being done, and each of us can be part of this and play a role. The service that this film has brought forth, providing public awareness, demands that we cannot remain silent.
The Response
We must move back from the brink of nuclear war. There is a rapidly growing grassroots, community-based, intersectional movement that is happening across this country and working to prevent nuclear war called “Back from the Brink.” Heeding this call and acknowledging the significance and urgency of nuclear abolition, U.S. Representative Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) has put forth H. Res 77 that urges the U.S. government to lead an international effort to abolish nuclear weapons, supporting the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and common sense precautionary measures during this period of negotiations that include: no first use of a nuclear weapon, ending the sole presidential authority for any sitting president to independently launch a nuclear attack, removing our weapons from hair trigger alert, and finally canceling the $1.5 trillion rebuild of our nuclear arsenals with enhanced weapons.
As of this writing, there are now 35 additional cosponsors of this U.S. House resolution. In our democracy, when the people lead, the leaders will follow. Everyone is encouraged to contact their representatives to cosponsor this critical House resolution. Those interested in helping disseminate information about H. Res 77 or distributing information at screenings are invited to download flyers at this Back From the Brink resource page.
In the February 1949 edition of The Atlantic, Oppenheimer wrote in his “The Open Mind“ article, “It is in our hands to see the hope of the future not lost.” If you, like I, are concerned about climate change, economic, social, health, and environmental justice or peace, it’s essential to know that none of it matters in the aftermath of a nuclear war. We must realize the intersectionality of each of these concerns and work together to eliminate nuclear weapons before they eliminate us, so that we can continue our work for justice.