Nuclear Disarmament

The Nuclear Disarmament group, the largest and most long-standing of the Mass Peace Action working groups, aims to eliminate the existential threat of nuclear weaponsThrough education and legislative advocacy, we work for risk reduction, non-proliferation, disarmament, and abolition. Our main campaigns challenge the proposed investments in nuclear modernization, call for No First Use, and organize support for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

History

 

Nuclear weapons are the deadliest, most immoral weapons ever created. If just a tiny fraction of the current world arsenal is launched, an unthinkable level of injury and devastation will occur worldwide. Tens of millions of people will be casualties on the first afternoon and one billion in the weeks following. The ensuing global nuclear-induced winter would conceivably end most of life on earth: even a few thousand nuclear detonations would unleash enough soot and smoke to darken the atmosphere worldwide, cause a planet-wide mini-ice age and a complete collapse of the global food system – virtually all survivors would starve to death. In January 2021 for the second year in a row, the experts at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists have set the iconic Doomsday Clock at 100 seconds to midnight with midnight signifying nuclear apocalypse. Humanity has not been this close to catastrophe since the height of the Cold War.

Nuclear Arms Control

 

The United States is one of nine global nuclear powers. The others are the United Kingdom, France, Russia, China, Pakistan, India, Israel and North Korea. Together they possess nearly 13,500 nuclear weapons with United States and Russia holding over 90 percent. The United States, the first to have developed and deployed them, is the only nation to have used nuclear weapons during war. As long as these states adhere to maintaining their nuclear arsenals, others are incentivized to develop them.

The international arms control agreements that for decades provided a level of security against nuclear conflict have been steadily eroded this century. In the last four years the United States withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (aka the Iran Deal), the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, and the Open Skies Treaty. And while President Biden has agreed to extend by another five years the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty of 2011 (New START) with Russia and has made efforts to rejoin the Iran deal, he has reneged on his campaign pledges for nuclear disarmament and arms control. Biden has announced the U.S. will not rejoin the Open Skies Treaty of 1992 and is continuing the multi-decade program to “modernize” the nuclear arsenal that has already led to the development and alarming deployment of the so called “low-yield”, more easily used warheads.

The Cost

 

Nuclear weapons program costs continue to skyrocket: In FY2018, $22.4 Billion of U.S. tax dollars ($ 727.24 million for Massachusetts alone) were spent on nuclear weapons. The nuclear weapons “modernization” program has increased each year and may cost as much as $1.7 Trillion. President Biden has requested $43 billion for nuclear weapons for FY 2022, almost five times the entire budget for the CDC and a 14% increase over 2020. Russia and China are following with upgrades to their systems – all this extravagant waste on weapons of mass destruction while money needed to address the climate emergency, a global vaccine program, pandemic preparedness and response cannot be found.

Related Legislation

Nuclear disarmament legislation in Congress

The Nuclear Disarmament Initiative in the MA State House

No First Use: Decrease the Danger of Nuclear War

MAPA is the initiating group of the “No First Use: Decrease the Danger of Nuclear War” campaign. Check out the campaigns call to action and information on how to get involved.

Hiroshima/Nagasaki Week 2021 – Recap in Photos

In solidarity with the global grassroots “Peace Wave” initiated by Gensuikyo and as a testament to the growing demand for nuclear disarmament, peace activists across the Commonwealth and in Rhode Island held some two dozen events marking the 76th anniversary of the atomic bombings of

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Joseph Gerson spoke at Watertown's Hiroshima/Nagasaki commemoration, Aug 8, 2021. Virginia Pratt photo
Nuclear Disarmament is More Urgent than Ever

by Joseph Gerson Remarks delivered at the Watertown Hiroshima/Nagasaki Commemoration, August 8, 2021 (August 9 in Nagasaki) Friends, The A-bombings , 76 years ago, were crimes humanity. They were indiscriminate, unnecessary, and ushered in an era in which human survival is constantly threated by accident,

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beaded tasseled peace crane ornaments
Paper Lanterns and Peace Cranes

by Gail Tipton In May 2018, I saw a documentary film called Paper Lanterns. It tells the story of Shigeaki Mori’s research to identify and honor 12 American soldiers who had died when the first atomic bomb devastated Hiroshima, Japan at 8:15 a.m., August 6,

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The Nuclear Disarmament working group meets bimonthly, Sundays at 4PM. For more information fill out this form.

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