NUCLEAR INSANITY & THE LAST DAYS OF HUMAN DEPRAVITY . . . ~ LLAW
Dec 12, 2024
See details of image and credits in the Al Jazeera article ~llaw)
LLAW’s NUCLEAR WORLD NEWS TODAY AND THEIR RISKS & CONSEQUENCES TOMORROW
There are four linked related articles to this must-read article from Melissa Parke, the Executive Director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), and this story, that brought a tight throat and tears to my eyes, ought to convince us all that “All Things Nuclear”, especially nuclear weapons of war — which now, in my estimation, includes all nuclear power plant facilities as well as nuclear waste —around the world must be eliminated from human existence rather than the other way around.
The United States atomic bombing of Japan in 1945 toll of deaths and other horrendous statistics in Ms. Parke’s story posted here should tell us all that the Earth, including human and most other life, will become uninhabitable in the event of any close to something like a nuclear WWIII.
An added negative comment about the previous U.S. president Donald J. Trump administration is an additional alert that should turn on the light-bulb warnings in all of our heads everywhere on planet Earth, because this attitude toward nuclear war cannot be tolerated. We should all understand now that “A nuclear war cannot be won.” ~llaw
It’s time the world understands a nuclear war cannot be won
We all need to listen to the survivors of nuclear war, and support their struggle to convince all nuclear states to give up their arsenals.
- Melissa ParkeExecutive Director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) (See more about Melissa Park and ICAN at the end of the article. ~llaw)
Published On 12 Dec 202412 Dec 2024
When United States President Ronald Reagan and his Soviet counterpart Mikhail Gorbachev met in Geneva in 1985 they agreed “A nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.” It was the prelude to the beginning of the end of the Cold War nuclear arms race and subsequent deep cuts in American and Soviet – later Russian – arsenals.
Since then, the original five nuclear weapons states have reaffirmed this statement, most recently in 2022.
But some disagree and hark back to the military strategies of the 1950s that envisaged the use of nuclear weapons by troops on the battlefield to win wars. A recent example is former Trump administration official, David Lasseter, who argued “the Department of Defense (DoD) is not doing nearly enough to ensure the American warfighter is able to fight, survive, and win on a nuclear battlefield”.
The timing of such comments could not be more inopportune: as the Nobel Peace Prize is about to be awarded to Nihon Hidankyo – an organisation of hibakusha, the survivors of the US bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki – for their lifelong campaigning for the elimination of nuclear weapons.
The 1945 atomic bombs that killed more than 200,000 people in Japan would today be called “tactical” nuclear weapons. The survivors of those “tactical” nuclear weapons are the real experts on what nuclear war means. They crawled through the rubble of the world’s first, and thankfully only, nuclear war. It is cynical indeed for armchair warriors, particularly those with ties to the companies building nuclear weapons, to advocate strategies based on unproven theories, not real-life experience.
The hibakusha alive today were children when their cities were devastated by American atomic bombs 80 years ago. Their average age is now 86.
Sumiteru Taniguchi, who died in 2017, was 16 years old when Nagasaki was attacked. At the time of the explosion, he was riding his bicycle. “In the flash of the explosion,” he recounted, “I was blown off the bicycle from behind and slapped down against the ground.” When he lifted his head, he saw that the children who had been playing all around him just moments before were dead.
He suffered severe burns and his wounds quickly became infected. He spent almost four years in hospital recovering from his injuries, including 21 months lying on his stomach. He had to have 10 surgeries later in life to remove growths from the scarred areas of his body. The pain and discomfort from the injuries never went away.
It is estimated that 38,000 children were killed in the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The fact that so many children were killed, maimed and harmed in other lingering ways in the attacks motivated the survivors, like Taniguchi, who served as chair of the Nagasaki Council of A-Bomb Sufferers for many years, to devote their lives to working to ensure no one ever again has to suffer as they did.
The testimony of the survivors graphically shows that the idea that nuclear war can be fought and won on the battlefield is dangerous, grotesque nonsense that makes nuclear war more likely. As Annie Jocobsen’s recent book Nuclear War: A Scenario made clear, the use of a nuclear weapon would quickly escalate and result in a major exchange that would not just kill tens or hundreds of thousands near the explosions, but would end the world as we know it in a matter of minutes. It would cause a nuclear winter that would lead to the collapse of food production, famine and the deaths of billions of people. The impact on global biodiversity and the economy is nearly impossible to imagine.
In response to nuclear threats that Russia has made during the Ukraine conflict, the co-chair of Nihon Hidankyo, Terumi Tanaka, who was 13 when Nagasaki was bombed, says the use of nuclear weapons would spell “the end of the human race” and that leaders like President Putin “don’t realise the extent of the damage that can be done”.
The leaders of all the nuclear-armed countries need to ignore the siren voices that tell them nuclear war can be fought and won and instead listen to the hibakusha who are urging them to eliminate their arsenals before it is too late.
After Nihon Hidankyo was told it had won the Peace Prize, another of its co-chairs, Toshiyuki Mimaki, from Hiroshima, said the award would help bring the end of nuclear weapons closer, saying, “It would be a great force to appeal to the world that the abolition of nuclear weapons can be achieved … Nuclear weapons should absolutely be abolished.”
The hibakusha achieved a major step towards this goal when they played a leading role in the creation of the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, the TPNW. The treaty bans nuclear weapons and all activities associated with them outright. It came into force in 2021 and half of all countries have already signed or ratified it.
The TPNW provides the pathway under international law for all nuclear-armed states to get rid of their weapons. This year’s Nobel Peace Prize underlines that the governments of these countries have no more excuses – they should listen to Nihon Hidankyo and the hibakusha, join the treaty and eliminate their arsenals.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
- Melissa ParkeExecutive Director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN)Melissa Parke is Executive Director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), winner of the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize. She formerly worked for the United Nations in Gaza, Kosovo, New York and Lebanon and served as Australia’s Minister for International Development.
Keep reading
list of 4 items
list 1 of 4
Risk of nuclear weapon use rising, warn Nobel Peace Prize winners
list 2 of 4
US imposes new sanctions on Iran’s ‘shadow fleet’ of oil tankers
list 3 of 4
Ukraine slams ‘failed’ 1994 security guarantee, urges NATO membership
list 4 of 4
Iran plans to install 6,000 centrifuges to enrich uranium, IAEA says
end of list
Subscribed
ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO “LLAW’a ALL THINGS NUCLEAR” RELATED MEDIA:
(Please note that the Saturday and Sunday NUCLEAR WORLD’S NEWS are also added below by category, to Monday’s news posts in order to maintain continuity of nuclear news as well as for research for the overall information provided in “LLAW;s All Things Nuclear”.)
There are 7 categories, with the latest addition, (#7) being a Friday weekly roundup of IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) global nuclear news stories. Also included is a bonus non-nuclear category for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcanic and caldera activity around the world that play an important role in humanity’s lives. The feature categories provide articles and information about ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links with headlines concerning the most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none (especially so with the Yellowstone Caldera). The Categories are listed below in their usual order:
- All Things Nuclear
- Nuclear Power
- Nuclear Power Emergencies
- Nuclear War
- Nuclear War Threats
- Yellowstone Caldera (Note: There is one Yellowstone Caldera bonus story available in today’s Post.)
- IAEA Weekly News (Friday’s only)
Whenever there is an underlined link to a Category media news story, if you press or click on the link provided, you no longer have to cut and paste to your web browser, since this Post’s link will take you directly to the article in your browser.
A current Digest of major nuclear media headlines with automated links is listed below by nuclear Category (in the above listed order). If a Category heading does not appear in the daily news Digest, it means there was no news reported from this Category today. Generally, the three best articles in each Category from around the nuclear world(s) are Posted. Occasionally, if a Post is important enough, it may be listed in multiple Categories.
TODAY’s NUCLEAR WORLD’s NEWS, Thursday, (12/12/2024)
All Things Nuclear
NEWS
Iran’s nuclear phoenix may yet rise from the ashes of Gaza, Lebanon, Syria – The Hill
The Hill
… about causing “an all-out war” in the Middle East. In Blinken’s own … Iran is fully intent on achieving nuclear breakout and on amassing a sizable …
Nuclear energy bill goes to Ohio governor with state park fracking provisions – WOSU
WOSU
All Things Considered. Next Up: 6:00 PM Marketplace. 0:00. 0:00. All Things … Nuclear energy bill goes to Ohio governor with state park fracking …
Sodium-cooled prototype fast breeder reactor could massively boost energy production
Interesting Engineering
… about all things that fall under science and tech. News energy. POPULAR ARTICLES. 1. space · New nuclear electric propulsion partnership to bring fast …
Nuclear Power
NEWS
As energy needs grow nationwide, some officials look to nuclear energy as a solution
YouTube
As tension over the proposed Maryland Piedmont Reliability Project continues to rise, some lawmakers are looking to Governor Wes Moore to explore …
S&P 500 Nuclear Leader Constellation Energy Tops Indexes After Upgrade
Investor’s Business Daily
Nuclear energy leader Constellation Energy led the S&P 500 early Thursday after receiving a stock upgrade and price target hike.
Critics say Diablo Canyon nuclear plant produces too much power at too high a price
KPBS
San Diego county’s nuclear power plant, San Onofre, was closed more than 10 years ago. But the Diablo Canyon plant is still cranking out gigawatts …
Nuclear Power Emergencies
NEWS
Ukraine Faces Rising Risk of Nuclear Plants Incident, US Warns – Bloomberg
Bloomberg
IAEA’s board of governors convened emergency meeting in Vienna. The turbine hall of the Rivne Nuclear Power Plant in Varash, Ukraine. . The …
Ukraine Faces Rising Risk of Nuclear Plants Incident, US Warns | Financial Post
Financial Post
… power grid have increased the probability of a catastrophic nuclear … emergency meeting of the United Nations atomic watchdog. Author of the …
Nuclear Energy: A Missed Opportunity for Maine
The Maine Wire
… emergencies. Nuclear is one of the safest energy sources when measured by fatalities per unit of electricity produced. Myth: Nuclear waste is …
Nuclear War
NEWS
It’s time the world understands a nuclear war cannot be won – Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera
We all need to listen to the survivors of nuclear war, and support their quest to rid the world of all nuclear weapons.
WATCH LIVE: Pentagon holds news briefing as U.S. warns Russia may use new missile …
PBS
Within hours of the attack on the military facility, Russian President Vladimir Putin took the rare step of speaking on national TV to boast about the …
Amid Russian bombing, Ukraine is planning more nuclear reactors – The Economist
The Economist
RUSSIAN MISSILES have knocked out roughly half of Ukraine’s pre-war electricity-generation capacity. But because Russia has refrained from blowing …
Nuclear War Threats
NEWS
European nations threaten ‘snap back’ sanctions on Iran – JNS.org
JNS
European nations threaten ‘snap back’ sanctions on Iran. The threat comes after IAEA head Rafael Grossi confirmed Tehran has sharply increased uranium ..
Russia’s nuclear policy adjustment sends clear signal – China Military
China Military
… nuclear threats, supported by military nuclear exercises and missile tests. … nuclear strike and making Europe feel the “chill” of a nuclear war.
Editorial: Voices of Japan’s A-bomb survivors must drive world’s elimination of nukes – The Mainichi
mainichi.jp
Russia, which has continued its war on Ukraine, has repeatedly made nuclear threats, lowering the hurdle for the weapons’ use. China, meanwhile .
Yellowstone Caldera
NEWS
Grizzly bears and the Yellowstone Supervolcano, that’s what got readers’ attention in 2024
Billings Gazette
Stories about bears, wolves, bison and elk, and their home on the range, Yellowstone Park, paid the bills at the Gazette this year.