By
Arthur Milholland
As long as nuclear weapons
exist, we're on the brink of self annihilation.
On
Aug. 6 and 9 in 1945, Hiroshima and Nagasaki had no idea atomic explosions were
imminent. Now, 70 years later, Homo sapiens has known its fate for a long time,
but as Albert Einstein observed, "The unleashed power of the atom has
changed everything, save our modes of thinking and we thus drift toward
unparalleled catastrophe."
Most
Americans know almost nothing of the devastating blast, heat, radiation and
electro-magnetic effects of nuclear devices. Most don't know how many there
are, or where. Most have little concept of how even a limited, regional war
could end civilization. And most don't know how close that terrible end has come. As recently
as 1995, a Russian military radar mistook a Norwegian-U.S. scientific rocket
for a possible attack on Moscow. It was a very close call, only barely avoided
because there was no international tension at the time. Even the Cuban Missile
Crisis is a faded memory. There have been several near-death events, and
hundreds of weapons accidents and malfunctions, mostly covered up. Moreover,
serious threats to use nuclear weapons have been made time and again. They are
always "on the table."
At
one time, mankind was acutely aware that we are conducting an experiment to see
how long the nuclear weapons it created will allow humans to exist. True, a few
feeble avoidance measures were adopted: Explosions have been banned in the
atmosphere, under the seas and in outer space; in 1996, the World Court
declared nuclear weapons' threat or use a violation of international law; in the 1968 Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, nations
promised to eliminate nuclear weapons from the earth. In fact, though, design
and manufacture of new ones goes on and on, with the U.S. alone planning to spend $1 trillion over the next 30 years.
Non-nuclear
countries have not forgotten. In December 2014, at the Third Conference on the
Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons (HINW), this statement from the chair's summary captures
our plight: ""The impact of a nuclear weapon detonation, irrespective
of the cause, would not be constrained by national borders and could have
regional and even global consequences, causing destruction, death and
displacement as well as profound and long-term damage to the environment,
climate, human health and well-being, socioeconomic development, social order
and could even threaten the survival of humankind."
Out
of that conference, Austria formulated the Austrian Pledge, "to cooperate
with all relevant stakeholders, States, international organizations, the
International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movements, parliamentarians and civil
society, in efforts to stigmatize, prohibit and eliminate nuclear weapons in
light of their unacceptable humanitarian consequences and associated
risks." Now called the Humanitarian Pledge, this has been endorsed by 113
states as of July 14.
There
are still nearly 16,000 nuclear weapons on the planet, some
1,800 on Cold War-era hair-trigger alert on land, in the air and under the
seas, ready to destroy all human past and future achievements in a few minutes.
We've been on the brink of self-annihilation for 70 years. Our children and
their descendants may get healthy food and exercise, our scientists publish
papers, people chart family histories and plan for the future — but all that is
at risk. Everything — Mozart, Rembrandt, Super Bowls, ukuleles, the Beatles —
could be gone forever.
Few
would dispute that good medical care can only come from fully informed decision
and consent. Good politics is the same. In both arenas, luck and hope can never
be foundations for planning of life and death matters.
Hiroshima
and Nagasaki call out for Americans — all humans — to have informed consent,
including the knowledge that they have every right and power to remove the
artificial, man-made, expensive demons whose existence can lead to human
species extinction.
Dr.
Arthur Milholland is on the steering committee of Chesapeake Physicians for
Social Responsibility; his email is amilholl007@gmail.com.
Copyright © 2015, The Baltimore Sun
Donations can be sent
to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD
21218. Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class
has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.
The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject
class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their
lives." Eugene Victor Debs
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