Nuclear weapons and their threats to humanity
Canada’s stance on nuclear weapon abolition reflects alarming global issues.
Let’s talk about the destructive power of nuclear weapons. If you haven’t heard about weapon abolition yet, or you have but are wondering why it would be relevant to you, you probably don’t know enough about it yet. So, let me give you a tangible visualization of how threatening nuclear weapons are.
The horror hidden within nuclear weapons
Nuclear bombs that we’ve all heard about, like the one detonated in Hiroshima, have devastated lives and caused huge damage to our society and environment. Tens of thousands were killed, and many later succumbed to radiation poisoning. But keep in mind that with technological development, many of the nuclear weapons developed after World War II are much stronger than before.
Aside from their immediate lethality, nuclear weapons have detrimental long-term health consequences. For example, physicians have projected that around 2.4 million people worldwide will die from cancer just from atmospheric nuclear tests conducted from 1945 to 1980.
Beyond health impacts, nuclear weapons have severely damaged our environment, especially by causing radioactive contamination. Radioactive contamination infiltrates the air that we breathe, gets absorbed by plants, gets ingested by animals and contaminates our food chain, just to name a few.
According to a report from the US Government Accountability Office, the radioactive fallout from the 67 nuclear weapons tests conducted in the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) between 1946 to 1958 was equivalent to detonating 1.7 Hiroshima-sized bombs every day for 12 years. Needless to say, the contamination caused by this singular nuclear weapon testing project has caused unimaginable damage to ecosystems and, in turn, our health.
Understanding Canada’s stance on nuclear weapons
Despite the devastation nuclear weapons have continuously caused, countries like Canada remain hesitant to fully commit to nuclear weapon abolition.
Canada is one of the 190 members of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, which aims to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology. However, Canada has yet to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which targets the prohibition and total elimination of nuclear weapons. In addition, though Canada does not possess any nuclear weapons, it allows their potential use through its membership in NATO, or rather, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
The Canadian government’s hesitance to abolish nuclear weapons is alarming. It reflects that some countries are still open to the possibility of using a weapon that could kill millions in a matter of seconds.
A figure to inspire us
After learning the impact of nuclear weapons, it is easy to feel hopeless. But instead of lingering in devastation, we can ignite hope by taking action ourselves. Professor John Polanyi at the University of Toronto sets an excellent example for us.
Polanyi was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1986. As a University Professor Emeritus and Nobel Prize laureate, Polanyi has publicly spoken on the importance of prohibiting nuclear weapons.
What can students do?
At this stage, though we might not have the expertise and reputation like Polanyi does, we as students carry two crucial elements in the nuclear abolition movement: hope and determination.
We are the next generation that can make the total elimination of nuclear weapons possible. Efforts as small as consistently getting informed, holding conversations on the urgency of nuclear weapon abolition and volunteering in nuclear abolition movements can make a real change. These actions may seem insignificant now, but if each of us is willing to make consistent efforts, society will be able to advance towards a direction that protects humanity.
Reading this article can be your first step in the nuclear abolition movement. Now, it is up to you to take this further and infiltrate it in whatever discipline you aspire to get into. Nuclear weapons are disguised as protection, but they threaten the future we are striving to build. And having learnt the threat that it poses, it is our responsibility to defend it.
