Nuclear war is a real and present danger, according to Ira Helfand, recipient of the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize.
“This is the danger in which we allow ourselves to live with every day, that we allow these weapons to continue to exist,” Helfand said. “We need to understand that these weapons do continue to exist—it is not a question of if they will be used, it is only a question of when they will be used.”
Helfand spoke at Boston College on Monday at an event titled “Back from the Brink,” discussing the present danger of nuclear war and what can be done to stop it. Hefland is a member of the International Steering Group of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985 and 2017 for his work.
“This doesn’t have to happen,” Helfand said. “It really is up to us whether we have a nuclear war or not.”
Helfand detailed the various global stressors that could result in violence, including tension between the United States and Russia, the United States and China, and the Israel-Hamas War.
The use of nuclear weapons in any of these conflicts could bring about unimaginable destruction, Helfand said.
“Within a 1,000th of a second of the detonation of this bomb, a firewall will form … everything will be vaporized—the buildings, the trees, the people, the upper level of the earth,” Helfand said. “The explosion will generate winds greater than 600 miles per hour. Mechanical forces of that nature, of that magnitude, destroy anything human beings can build within [16] miles in every direction.”
Helfand said this type of destruction would be catastrophic, with 12–15 million dead within a half hour in New York City, or four to five million in Boston. As years passed, people would experience radiation, lack of order, famine, and would die in masses, Helfand said.
“It is possible that, under these circumstances, we could become extinct as a species,” Helfand said.
But according to Helfand, all is not lost.
“This horrible scenario that I’ve described to you is the future that will be if we don’t take action,” Helfand said. “But it is not the future that needs to be. Nuclear weapons are not a force of nature.”
Helfand said there is a network of people and groups that have come together to spread awareness about the danger of nuclear weapons and how to help stop nuclear destruction. With continued campaigning, he said, we can encourage politicians to disassemble nuclear arms.
“There is a real campaign that has a real chance of success, but it needs something, which I frankly and directly invite you,” Helfand said. “No one of you can solve this problem alone, so you don’t have to feel that it’s all your job, but the job isn’t going to get done if each one of us doesn’t do that part of the job.”
Helfand urged the audience to become involved in the campaign against nuclear weapons.
“Those of us living today have been given the opportunity to save the world,” Helfand said. “And there’s nothing better that anyone can ever do with their life.”
