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Science, Religion, and Obama’s Mixed Legacy on Nuclear Weapons

Published:
May 4, 2016
Author:
David Wright

Contents

In April 2009 in Prague, President Obama highlighted the continuing risks posed by nuclear weapons. He promised to “take concrete steps” to reduce those risks and “put an end to Cold War thinking.”

Since then, the administration has in fact taken some positive steps, including concluding the Iran nuclear deal, and the New START treaty that reduces U.S. and Russian deployed nuclear forces.

But it has also taken some negative steps, such as planning for a $1 trillion program to completely rebuild the U.S. nuclear arsenal over the next three decades and to build new types of nuclear warheads. This is classic Cold War thinking, and is the kind of step that fuels an arms race.

Cloud from the Nagasaki bomb. (Source: National Archives)

Cloud from the Nagasaki bomb. (Source: National Archives)

Former Secretary of Defense Bill Perry recently warned, “The danger of a nuclear catastrophe today, I believe, is greater than it was during the Cold War.” Things are moving in the wrong direction, and the administration needs to take some positive steps—and soon.

In response to this situation, UCS joined with several faith groups to call for something we all agree on: President Obama should take new steps to reduce the danger posed by nuclear weapons and a new arms race. In particular, we jointly call for:

The president is reportedly considering a visit to Hiroshima when he is in Japan for the G7 meeting at the end of May, to highlight the humanitarian consequences of using nuclear weapons.

But giving another speech is not enough. The president should announce concrete steps, picking up the work he started in Prague.

The science-faith statement was signed by

 

This article was originally posted on the Union of Concerned Scientists blog, and the Spanish version of the statement can be found here.

This content was first published at futureoflife.org on May 4, 2016.

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