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