AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko
I wanted to share my most recent op-ed in The Hill about the dangers of nuclear escalation, and why we need to seriously consider the nuclear threats coming from Putin. The events of the past week in Ukraine have been heartbreaking, as over one million Ukrainians have fled the country due to Russia’s invasion. A military invasion in the middle of a pandemic presents enough of a humanitarian crisis. But the risk of a nuclear conflagration raises the stakes immensely: would Putin truly risk a nuclear war to achieve his geopolitical goals in Ukraine? We need to consider that he is prepared to do so and do everything we can to prevent a nuclear escalation.
For more on the dangers and ugliness of a potential nuclear threat, read the full article here.
****
“In the early 1960s, with the cold war in full swing, a group of physicians formulated an organization called Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR). I once served as the chairman of the national executive committee of PSR and joined my colleagues in delivering a stark message to the public: If a nuclear conflict erupted between superpowers, the results would be catastrophic. Millions would be instantly killed, cities incinerated, and hospitals destroyed. Little could be done to save survivors severely injured by physical trauma, burns, and radiation consequent to multiple nuclear explosions both here and in the former Soviet Union.
Doctors and public health experts were saying that since there won’t be much, we can do after the fact, prevention is the only option. This is just as true now as it was when PSR was first organized in 1961.
It is also worth noting that beyond the immediate devastating consequences of nuclear war, long-lasting toxic levels of radiation would be ubiquitous. And under almost any nuclear war scenario, climate disruption would be devastating. The late astrophysicist, Carl Sagan, wrote about what he called “nuclear winter” where a persistent layer of dust and debris would blot out the sun and destroy agricultural viability throughout much of the planet.
Watch my 2008 TED Talk : “How to survive a nuclear attack”.
****
As seen in:
