[Blog] “BAN THE BOMB !”

“Make love not war” (the mantra of the ‘Ban the Bomb’ campaign during the Cold War).
 
Has our real concern about CLIMATE CHANGE, GLOBAL WARMING and EPIDEMICS made us forget the threat of atomic war? Having written on numerous occasions on the nuclear safety issue in the past as well as being the author of the Nuclear Rectangle theory (a major nuclear war world could modify the orbit of planet earth round the sun), I urge readers to join the world wide campaign of the seventies to BAN THE BOMB, to fight for nuclear safety. It is more than ever necessary today.

At present NINE countries out of 193 countries on Planet Earth possess nuclear weapons (atomic or hydrogen bombs), namely:

•    Russia, 6,850 nuclear warheads
•    USA 6,550 warheads
•    France, 300 warheads
•    China, 280 warheads
•    UK, 215 warheads
•    Pakistan, 145 warheads
•    India, 135 warheads
•    Israel, 80 warheads
•    North Korea, 15 warheads.

With North Korea expanding its nuclear arsenal, other countries are trying to get the bomb (Iran for example?). On the positive side, 4 countries that formerly possessed nuclear weapons gave them up. One of them is South Africa. A great fear today is that a terrorist organisation gets its hands on a nuclear device, some of which are small enough to get into a large lorry.

Radiation is the greatest enemy of life, of all organic living things on Planet Earth. Remember the nuclear accidents at Chernobyl and Fukushima, where radioactive material was released and affected people, animal and plants.
Consider these pertinent questions:

“Since Radiation is invisible, how do you know when you are in danger? How long will this danger persist? How can you reduce the hazard to yourself and family? What level of exposure is safe? What are the potential risks of acute and chronic exposures? What are the related consequential damages of exposure? How do you rebuild a healthy way of life in the aftermath of nuclear disaster? (Barbara Rose Johnston, 2011). Only a Geiger counter can measure atomic radiation. 

Are we re-assured knowing who in these countries has his finger (no her finger of a Golda Meir, or a Theresa May, but maybe soon that of a Kamala) on the nuclear trigger? Joe and Vladimir? Narendra Modi and Shehbaz Sharif? Benjamin Netanyahu and Kim Jong-un ? Emmanuel and Keir?  Xi Jinping?  Can we trust them?

ONLY ONE COUNTRY: The United States detonated two ATOMIC BOMB, over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima (on 6th August) and Nagasaki (on 9th August) 1945. How many people were killed in Hiroshima and Nagasaki?

The two bombs killed an estimated 130,000 and 225,000 people respectively, most of whom were civilians. Half of these deaths occurred at the moment the bombs exploded, the remainder over the next 2 to 4 months due to radiation and burns. The USA remains the ONLY country to have used nuclear weapons TO DESTROY cities and structures AND INFLICT DEATH, admittedly in an armed conflict, the Second World War Japan did surrender to the Allies on August 15, six days after the bombing of Nagasaki, effectively ending World War II.  A pertinent question for us: ARE NUCLEAR MISSILES AND BOMBS stockpiled by the USA in the CHAGOS?
 
Never again to deadly destructions of humanity, for example through WARS (e.g. during the 30 or so wars of the 20th century, 2 of them World Wars, 100 million people were killed ); GENOCIDES (that of the Nazis on Jews which eliminated 5 million people, that in Rwanda which saw 850,000 people murdered, the present one in Gaza); EPIDEMICS (e.g. such as the black death  in the middle ages, or the Spanish flu which saw  500 million people, one-third of the world's population, infected with this virus, leading to at least 50 million deaths, the CV-19 pandemic with,  19 million infected and 700,000 deaths, the new MPox epidemic; TECHNOLOGY (e.g. the 1.35 million people who die each year as a result of road traffic crashes, the 250,000 yearly gun deaths worldwide; collectively, substance abuse, namely smoking, alcohol and illicit drug use,  kills 11 million people each year.); NUCLEAR BOMBS  (e.g. the 355,000 people who died in 1945 when two atomic bombs were dropped on them).

We must pray for the world to control this madness of making and stockpiling nuclear weapons which if used can ONLY BRING death and destruction of the Environment, making some parts of the planet inhabitable (like the BIKINI ATOLL in the PACIFIC on which the USA detonated its first hydrogen bomb, after its inhabitants were moved elsewhere (like the Chagossians), never to return.

DR MICHAEL ATCHIA
                                
(Former United Nations Programme Director)