Are we at risk of another nuclear war

nuclear war

two words that have seemed to be

forgotten yet the impact the last

nuclear war left

75 years ago is still remembered by many

a generation ago some of the world’s

most powerful leaders came together to

stop the cold war

after the incidents in nagasaki and

hiroshima during world war ii

people acted as though nuclear weapons

had gone away they didn’t exist anymore

and it became an out of sight out of

mind mentality

now when we think of atomic wars we

think of nuclear weapons

mass destruction deaths injuries

civilians

and everything is negative there are no

positive outcomes to the use of nuclear

weapons

the first and only time in history where

we had nuclear weapons that were used

were in world war ii and this was in

nagasaki and hiroshima

two cities in japan now we’ve all seen

pictures of these cities wiped out

entirely by just one bomb that was used

there was not a single untouched or

unaffected object

in sight and everything had been

demolished and ruined but this was 75

years ago and now

in the 21st century were the rapid

advances in technology

do you really think that the same effect

75 years ago that killed

almost 300 000 people is going to be the

same

as if it was to be now with modern day

technology

the blast then took a decade to just

clear the rubble and begin rebuilding

it took a further 20 or so years for the

city to become viable

for people to actually start living

thriving and investing in these cities

now to put it into perspective looking

at a city like london

it would not take just one single small

nuclear bomb to create havoc

but at least 15 to 20 nuclear bombs

each of them being up to 50 times more

powerful

than the ones used in nagasaki hiroshima

the first thing that would occur from

something like this

would be firestorms the temperature

after one nuclear explosion is said to

be

about 100 million celsius

this is equivalent to hotter

temperatures than those recorded of the

sun there’d be no trees

no buildings no people nothing that

lives all breeds would be left

on a global scale temperatures will drop

so low

that it would be colder than some of the

times during the last ice age

food production would stop which would

put countries like yemen who are

currently suffering from the world’s

largest humanitarian crisis

off the map the majority of the human

race would starve to death

and all ecosystems would disintegrate dr

ira helfand

a member of the nobel peace prize

winning international physicians

for the prevention of nuclear war has

estimated that one to two

billion people would die because of

starvation if countries like pakistan

and india

went to war now these countries only

hold a couple

hundred nuclear weapons whereas the usa

and russia have over

5 000 nuclear weapons each

essentially we would be in a nuclear

winter and nobody would be safe no

matter where in the world

they are so imagine this between two

countries that hold nuclear weapons

currently there are 14 000 nuclear

warheads in the world

most of which are held by the usa and

russia other countries that hold nuclear

weapons are pakistan and india as

mentioned

followed by others including france and

the uk totalling to nine

countries with active nuclear weapons

and these countries

now have weapons that are three thousand

times more dangerous

than those used in nagasaki and

hiroshima

so take a minute to understand the level

of chaos that could occur today

as we’re just one problem away from a

nuclear war

nuclear weapons weren’t something that

were found on earth

they aren’t a natural occurrence in fact

they were man-made

with the intention to cause mass

destruction inflict pain and agony

and essentially kill those who would

come into contact with them

or kill those who would suffer from the

aftermath and this isn’t something

that hasn’t been discussed before

something that is in no way a

possibility

because it is in the last couple of

years there have been numerous times

where russia and the usa

have announced that they will use

nuclear weapons against each other

if necessary so why is it that i’m

telling you about nuclear weapons

about their effects the countries that

have them and the countless impacts the

nuclear war could have

so if we take a look at current affairs

there are ongoing tensions between many

states that hold nuclear weapons

and these are only growing tensions

between russia and the usa escalate

every so often

and in 2016 russia was allegedly said to

be involved in the u.s elections

and then again in 2020 past events in

syria and ukraine are also

possible reason for conflict between the

two u.s national security had in fact

declared both russia

and china to be their top two threats

both of which

do hold nuclear weapons there are

further growing tensions between

countries such as pakistan

and india whom of which currently have

the biggest ongoing conflict

the kashmir crisis kashmir has been

under occupation for almost 73 years

and has been at the center of three wars

fought by these rival countries

the land at the middle of this dispute

is jammu and kashmir

which is also known as indian occupied

kashmir ruled in a brutally fascist

manner

there have been 730 000 indian troops

deployed

so that’s every one soldier for 11

civilians

in just two months they lost 1.2 billion

dollars

which shattered their economy over 8

million people have been disconnected

and the number of deaths is unknown and

this was all in 2019

and since then things have escalated

fake news

propaganda media blackout political

leaders had been arrested

and the use of pellet guns which blinded

innocent civilians fighting for their

freedom

is still ongoing in fact kashmir is the

world’s largest prison since 2019

and to think we live so exclusively in

our own bubbles our own worlds

that we don’t necessarily know what’s

happening in the outside world

this is what it means to not be living

in the western world the decision and

sacrifice that these people have to make

is something

that we will never understand and for us

maybe the most important decision of the

day is whether

we want to eat chocolate cake or vanilla

cake for dessert but for these people

it’s whether they should step outside

their homes and raise their voices

but risk being blinded by pellet guns or

if they should stay inside and suffer in

silence

they don’t get the choice of using their

voices and knowing the impact of their

voices

like we do in 2019 i had the opportunity

to attend an event with the president of

jammu nazad kashmir

so that masood khan and in his words he

said

it is our collective responsibility to

save human civilization

to save the world from a war a war that

could go to the nuclear levels given the

capabilities of both pakistan and india

now this wouldn’t just destroy kashmir

or pakistan or india

this could destroy the world and what we

know of it

so this brings me back to my question

are we at risk of another nuclear war

well from what i’ve told you the answer

is simple yes

we are but now the next question is how

do we prevent it

we have to take responsibility for our

actions we have to educate ourselves

learn the impact of our voices and use

our platforms we have now to create

change

we have social media something that our

grandparents and parents didn’t have

growing up

and it is so diverse that it can be

shaped to whatever calls necessary so if

you think about it this

is how you create change the first step

is identifying within yourself what you

can do to make things better

if you have a platform to use it for

good

this can be things like raising

awareness signing petitions

speaking to your local government

officials we’re global citizens and we

don’t belong to just one community

because every decision we make affects

somebody else

and we’ve all seen this first hand now

we just went through a global pandemic

in fact we’re still going through a

global pandemic

and it’s something none of us could have

predicted

every single one of us wants to be a

good person

to do good to help others so why not

stop doing good by using this

opportunity

to save the world to save our future

selves

and to save our future children thank

you for coming to my tedx talk