Global IssuesThe Paradox of the Nuclear Age
Climate change and nuclear war are the two most serious threats to human security and planetary survival. Governments are addressing the causes of climate change and the prevention of nuclear war, but political will to reduce greenhouse gases and eradicate nuclear weapons needs to be further strengthened. Climate change is now visible and palpable, but the threat of nuclear war remains relatively abstract and unperceived among some complacent world leaders, despite the presence of thousands of nuclear weapons in a world that still resolves conflict by going to war, writes Ronald McCoy, founder president of Malaysian Physicians for Social Responsibility and past co-president of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, which received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985.
Twenty-one years after the end of the Cold War, both the United States and Russia, the main nuclear protagonists, still wield more than 20,000 nuclear warheads. Both states are committed to further reductions, following the 2010 New Start Treaty, which will reduce the number of deployed long-range nuclear weapons to 1,550 each by 2018. But domestic politics, U.S. missile defence plans, and Iran's nuclear ambitions have raised the barriers.
The paradox of the Nuclear Age is that the greater the striving for power and military security through nuclear weapons, the more elusive the goal of human security. For humankind to survive in an environmentally challenged and nuclear-armed world, it must learn from the mistakes of the past and forge a common, secure future. The moral challenge of our time is the unthinkable possibility of self-destruction on a global scale in a nuclear war or from climate change. The greatest priority for the future is to ensure that there will be a future.
(*) Ronald McCoy, a retired obstetrician and gynaecologist, is founder president of Malaysian Physicians for Social Responsibility and past co-president of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, which received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985.
© Inter Press Service (2012) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service