Nuclear Danger Grows

MAPA Newsletter Jul-Aug 2020

No Nukes
Image via Peace Coalition

Scientists Join Sen. Markey to Oppose Resumption of Nuclear Testing

by Jerry Ross and Jonathan Alan King

On the 75th anniversary of the first nuclear test explosion in the New Mexico desert, leading scientists from across the country joined Senator Edward J. Markey at a virtual press conference on July 16th organized by Mass. Peace Action to express their strong opposition to the Trump Administration’s threats to resume the US nuclear testing program. The scientists, including several Nobel Laureates, endorsed the PLANET Act, S.3886, introduced by Sen. Markey and 13 other senators, that would prohibit the use of federal funds for nuclear weapons testing. They announced the publication of an Open Letter in Science magazine warning that a resumption of testing would pose major public health hazards, fuel a new nuclear arms race, and possibly lead to accidental or intentional nuclear war. Read more.

 

Hiroshima & Nagasaki 75th Anniversary: A Call to Action

by Sofia Wolman

This August, 75 years will have passed since the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Around the world we mark these anniversaries each year — remembering the lives lost and altered forever on August 6 and 9, 1945. We raise awareness about the many dangers and horrific violence of nuclear weapons and war, and we denounce the unjust systems of which they are a foundational part. We lift our voices with the demand of the hibakusha, the survivors: No More Hiroshimas! No More Nagasakis! No More War! We invite you to join a global Peace Wave – of rituals, artistic contributions, educational programs, symbolic actions and more – between August 6 and 9, 2020. Read more.

 

Stop the Nuclear Arms Race!

by Jerry Ross

Mushroom cloud of 'Gadget' over Trinity, seconds after detonation

Today we face the gravest risk of nuclear war by accident or design since the darkest days of the Cold War. Yet too many people deny the reality of this danger, believing such a thing could never actually happen. If the Covid-19 pandemic has illustrated nothing else, it’s that very low-probability, high-impact calamities do indeed occur, with world-shattering results. The Trump administration is pursuing a Strangelovian recipe for catastrophe – dismantling nuclear treaties and safeguards, hiking international tensions, and bankrupting the nation with a vast expansion of omnicidal weapons. There are very specific steps being taken today that could lead us toward a nuclear cataclysm. As peace activists, as citizens, as rational adults who care about our children’s future, we must act now. Read more.

 

Raytheon Wins Contract for New Missile that Makes Nuclear War More Likely 

by Richard Krushnic

The enormously dangerous and expensive upgrading of the US nuclear triad is moving full steam ahead under the Trump Administration. The speed with which contracts are being awarded and work begun on new weapons systems will make it harder for any future Administration to turn around our nuclear policy. The Massachusetts-based Raytheon Technologies Corp. secured a contract in April to develop the nuclear Long-Range Standoff Missile (LRSO), which will be the air-launched leg of the new nuclear triad. Read more.

 

Nuclear Priorities in the Pandemic Era

by Steve Gallant 

Where should we focus our activist energies as the Covid-19 pandemic kills hundreds of thousands, and the Trump administration threatens to tear up nuclear treaties and to restart nuclear testing? First, let’s assess the dangers and their timelines. Covid-19 has killed 300,000 people worldwide in a half-year, and it threatens up to a million total fatalities. All in the next 1-2 years, unless we find a successful vaccine. Nuclear weapons are much more deadly, but are not expected to be used in the short run. (Neither was a pandemic expected in the short run.) Read more.