Jackson Hopkins

Dr. Nelson

English 1302

09 April 2022

Global Abolition of Nuclear Weapons

Ever since the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 the world has turned and

invested in the protection and use of nuclear weapons, unlike anything the world has ever seen

before whole cities and hundreds of thousands of people could be wiped off the face of the earth

in a matter of seconds and then turning the place that was bombed into a radioactive graveyard

which will be unhospitable for centuries. While International Law in the United Nations has tried

to lower the amount of these weapons that are produced and prevent them from ever being used

day by day these weapons grow stronger and most recently the fear of a nuclear war is becoming

increasingly real as nations who do not care about the great loss of life these weapons can create

are starting to use them as threats and if these nuclear weapons are used then not only will

humanity end but the Earth as well. Human beings must push to illegalize nuclear weapons due

to the great amount of danger these weapons pose on society, the weapons violate our morals as

people, the destroy our health and kick humanitarianism to the curb, risk destroying our entire

environment, and the people of the world live in fear of what these weapons could do in the

hands of a moralistically corrupt government.

Moralistically, the utilization of nuclear weapons should be prohibited because of the

great destruction of human life. Countries have used nuclear weapons more as a threat to invade

more than a reason to protect their people which stands in the way of world peace. During the

Cold War we realized that the threat of nuclear war doesn’t have to be from a World War starting
and all the nuclear holding nations of the world going to use their nuclear weapons but just one

country no matter how big or small can ruin the world in a matter of minutes, nuclear weapons

are quite harmful to the evolution of world peace and the worst thing of all is that there is no

defense against nuclear terrorism and that one day nuclear weapons could be used in instances

like 9/11. “If the world does not take strong steps to eliminate fissionable materials and nuclear

weapons, it will only be a matter of time before they will be used in terrorist attacks on major

cities” (Avery 302). What is critical to think about this quote is that it is not extremely far from

the truth as many countries' governments who are known for their violence and human rights

abuses such as the governments of North Korea, China, and Russia have in recent years started to

become much more violent and aggressive both domestically and internationally with the

Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the execution of COVID-19 positive people in North

Korea, and the mass genocide of the Uyghurs Muslims in China. As nations become increasingly

violent and uncaring for human rights it is very certain that these countries may use nuclear

weapons in the next major global conflict. These countries' governments in recent years used

their nuclear weapons as threats to the sovereignty of nations and the risk of invasion, if we let

these governments continue in their actions, they endanger not only the lives of their own people

but the people of the world as well.

Health and Humanitarianism has become more important in our modern world and many

organizations work to help these factor but one of the greatest risks to better global health and

humanitarianism has been nuclear weapons and how they put those dreams into ash. Nuclear

weapons pose a serious risk to human health not only in just the use of these weapons but also

the creation of these weapons poses huge risk to illnesses such as radiation sickness, can cause

cancer, and tumors to the brain and nervous system. For years people in the medical community

have warned and fought against these weapons being produced. During the start of the Cold War
the Medical Association for the Prevention of War (MAPW) which was founded in 1951, were

overly concerned about the ongoing arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union

and as time went on the concern over these weapons only grew. “In the Lancet and privately, and

led to a forum in London on 16 March 1951, attended by 130 doctors and chaired by Dr Horace

Joules, the founder of MAPW, the aim of which was to study physicians’ concerns on war,

particularly the ethical responsibilities of doctors in relation to war” (Waterson & Boulton 350).

This was the first big step in health professional being united against nuclear weapons as the

conference agreed that these weapons posed a serious risk to not only human health but the

continuation of the human species. Working together these medical professionals ran lobbies,

published articles and journals, and created discussions in universities to discuss the dangers

imposed by these weapons. “In 1979, Helen Caldicott, a pediatrician from Australia and a

passionate anti-nuclear weapons campaigner, was invited to speak at a meeting at University

College London which discussed setting up a UK medical anti-nuclear weapon organization; this

became the Medical Campaign Against Nuclear Weapons (MCANW), with branches up and

down the country including Scotland” (Waterson & Boulton 351). Working in tandem with the

MAPW these two organizations went on to lobby Parliament against nuclear weapons but sought

to increase more civil discourse in universities throughout the United Kingdom, these

organizations in recent years have become increasingly more important in the abolition of

nuclear weapons in Parliament while these medical professionals not only discuss the health

risks of these weapons, they also speak to the legality of using these weapons as in any way a

nation could possibly use these weapons would be illegal in international humanitarian law.

In terms of the environment, us as human beings have started to realize the impact we

have on the environment and a great contributing factor to our destruction of the environment

has been the creation, testing, and use of nuclear weapons and how they are destroying our
world. While the human population can lose millions of lives to these weapons and entire nation

and economies can collapse, what is very overlooked is the catastrophic danger that these

weapons pose to our environment. The dangers of testing these weapons have been a problem

since the 1950’s with large amount of radiation and debris contaminating parts of oceans,

underground, and our atmosphere which can cause weather changes, disrupting natural habitats

of animals, and cause health concerns to people over radiation. “Atmospheric nuclear weapons

testing involved the release of considerable amounts of radioactive materials directly into the

environment and caused the largest collective dose from man-made sources of radiation”

(Pravalie). In these testing sites these areas have been contaminated by the radioactive waste

which has caused these areas to not be used for literal thousands of years as the radiation is so

high and not only does it prevent humans from living there but the animals and plants have been

disrupted as well which has either caused mass extinction or resulted in mutations which can be

famously seen in the radioactive town of Chernobyl, Ukraine.

In conclusion, nuclear abolition is a cause that is desperately needed for the sake of

humanity, these weapons violate our morals as human beings and as a democratic people who

aim for world peace and prosperity for all. As we value the health of ourselves and our neighbors

and work with humanitarianism to give better lives to all people, these nuclear weapons go in

contrast to the health of the people and the process of giving everyone an equal opportunity in

life. Now in our modern age as we realize our impact that we have on the environment both

locally and globally we must see how these weapons go against those beliefs of

environmentalism and are plaguing our oceans, deserts, and even the atmosphere with enough

radiation to put plants and animals into extinction.

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