It is important to mark the solemn 75th anniversary of the first and only use of atomic weapons against cities as not only a remembrance of a tragic past event, but as a reminder of an ever-present threat that we have failed to address.
According to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, civilization-ending nuclear war — whether started by design, blunder or miscommunication — is at the highest risk of realization since 1945, as the Doomsday Clock is at 100 seconds to midnight.
As a professor of disaster and emergency management who has spent time at the site of the first atomic blast and subsequently studied civil defence preparedness for survival during nuclear war, the 75th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki comes at an especially depressing time.
(Jack Rozdilsky), Author provided
At the current moment, we as a civilization are at a low point in our failure to reduce the risk of nuclear weapon attacks. The risks of uninformed decision-making, mishaps or seemingly rational but flawed choices made under pressure can lead nations down a rapid one-way path of nuclear destruction that we can never fully prepare for.
4. Weapons of mass destruction
The world forever changed on July 16, 1945, when the first atomic bomb was detonated at the Trinity Test site in the New Mexico desert. The early morning blast was the capstone of an experiment that represented the potential of scientific achievement.
Twenty-one days after the successful test blast, the decisions made to quickly use this new bomb as an unparalleled weapon represented the capability of humankind to inflict suffering onto others. As with many acts of warfare, the use of the bomb was a purposeful creation of a disaster: a weapon of mass destruction.
For 2020, the status of world nuclear forces, provided by the Federation of American Scientists, indicates that nine nations hold 13,410 nuclear warheads, with what is thought to be 1,800 nuclear weapons on high alert for immediate use.
These weapons lurk in the background, and sometimes they make headlines. In 2017, threats of nuclear war were in the news again as tensions mounted when North Korea was developing its own nuclear weapons. The situation was further aggravated when U.S. President Donald Trump’s words threatening nuclear war were shockingly juvenile and frightening in tone.
