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A nuclear explosion in the Mururoa atoll, French Polynesia, in the 1970s
A nuclear explosion in the Mururoa atoll, French Polynesia, in the 1970s. Photograph: AFP
A nuclear explosion in the Mururoa atoll, French Polynesia, in the 1970s. Photograph: AFP

Nuclear weapons worsen the climate crisis

This article is more than 4 years old
Suggesting we remove nuclear weapons from the conversation ignores how intertwined these two existential threats are, writes Alicia Sanders-Zakre

Rachel Connolly is right to demand that the Labour leadership candidates address the climate crisis (The nuclear button? There really are more pressing issues, Journal, 8 January). But suggesting we remove nuclear weapons from the conversation ignores how intertwined these two existential threats are.

Generations of climate scientists have documented that a nuclear war could cause drastic climatic disturbances and global famine. Last year scientists found that the use of a few hundred weapons (less than 10% of today’s global nuclear arsenals) could nearly stop all rain over India and central China, and reduce global precipitation globally by 15%-30%. It would take over a decade to return to rainfall levels before the nuclear war.

Nuclear weapons destroy the climate even when they are not used. Nuclear weapons facilities – not unlike the oil and gas companies exacerbating the climate crisis – have contaminated land and water around the world with waste that will last far beyond even our grandchildren’s lifetimes.

Climate change could actually make nuclear war more likely. Increased resource scarcity increases the chance of conflict, according to a growing body of research.

The unacceptable humanitarian and environmental consequences of nuclear weapons and the ever-growing risk of nuclear use led 122 countries to vote to ban them in 2017. Today the UN treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons has 34 ratified states and 80 signatories – and counting.

So perhaps, as Rachel suggests, we should not be asking whether candidates would push the button to launch nuclear weapons. Instead we should join the world’s majority of countries and ask when they will take the nuclear button off the table for good.
Alicia Sanders-Zakre
International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons

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