Archives: Quotes

“The UN secretary general, António Guterres, has warned that the spread of artificial intelligence technology multiplies the threat of nuclear war, and that humanity is now ‘on a knife’s edge’ as dangers to its existence coalesce.”

– Guterres warns humanity on ‘knife’s edge’ as AI raises nuclear war threat, Julian Borger, The Guardian

“I attempt to demonstrate that there are no good scenarios in a nuclear war scenario. There are no good answers…We, the public, now know that no matter how nuclear war begins in various scenarios—whether NATO’s involved, whether China’s involved, whether it’s a tactical weapon or a strategic weapon—it ends in a nuclear apocalypse.”

– Here’s How Nuclear War Could Destroy Civilization in Just a Few Hours, Jon Skolnik, Vanity Fair

“The threat of nuclear war has dangled over humankind for much too long. We have survived so far through luck and brinkmanship. But the old, limited safeguards that kept the Cold War cold are long gone. Nuclear powers are getting more numerous and less cautious. We’ve condemned another generation to live on a planet that is one grave act of hubris or human error away from destruction without demanding any action from our leaders. That must change.”

– At the Brink, Kathleen Kingsbury, New York Times Opinion Editor

“What good is it to defend our country with nuclear weapons, if we poison our people?”

– Former Sen. John Glenn often asked,

“Clean water, clean air, clean land, and a safe place to live are our right. We must fight for the cleanup of all communities and stop the targeting of Black, brown and white communities alike to nuclear contamination.”

– Deb Katz: There’s no end in sight to the crisis in nuclear waste

“The only way to eliminate the nuclear risk is to eliminate nuclear weapons.

Let’s work together to banish these devices of destruction to the history books, once and for all.”

– United Nations Press Release: Banish Nuclear Weapons ‘to History Books, Once and for All’, Urges Secretary-General, Marking International Day

“…In the decades before the release of Oppenheimer, the nuclear thriller had become an almost taboo genre in Hollywood.
That’s a problem, because the nuclear threat never went away. If anything, it got worse. Today, the United States has about 400 nuclear tipped ICBMs, the ones I operated, ready for launch every single day….
A “Broken Arrow” is defined as an unexpected event that results in the accidental launching, firing, detonating, theft or loss of a nuclear weapon. Since the creation of nuclear weapons, there have been 32 Broken Arrows….

Do we want to live in a world free from the threat of nuclear war? Or do we want to cover our eyes and throw the dice in a world with more than 14,000 nuclear warheads?”

– The Guardian – Opinion: I was a US nuclear missile operator. I’m grateful for the Oppenheimer film by Cole Smith

“Nuclear dangers have seemed remote since the Cold War ended. But with international tensions rising along with nuclear arsenals, the corresponding risk that mistakes or misunderstandings lead to disaster are increasing.”

– Washington Post Editorial Board – Opinion: Nuclear dangers are rising once more. Here’s how the U.S. should respond.

“Nuclear arms and other weapons of mass destruction represent a multiplier of risk that offers only an illusion of peace.”

– In a letter to the Bishop of Hiroshima where the G7 Summit took place, Pope Francis appeals for an integral vision of global security and the pursuit of peace based on equality and solidarity.

“There were ‘at least 13 near use nuclear incidents from 1962 to 2002,” which ‘lends credence to the view that near miss incidents are normal, if terrifying, conditions of nuclear weapons.’”

– Paul Scharre in his 2018 book “Army of None.”

“The more we build up, Russia will certainly maintain parity, and our decisions will influence what China does…

So why not try to influence it all in the other direction, which is to maintain mutual constraints on U.S. and Russian nuclear weapons,
maybe exercise some self-restraint, and keep pushing to get China into a strategic stability and risk reduction dialogue, and eventually arms control.”

– Lynn Rusten, a former senior director for arms control and nonproliferation on the National Security Council during the Obama administration

“The longer Russia decides to continue its invasion, and military operations, the more likely nuclear weapons will become a greater part of this conflict. It’s something the world should be taking very seriously…”

– Interim Executive Director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, Daniel Hogsta

“There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.”

– Edith Wharton

“We must remind Japan that if the radioactive nuclear wastewater is safe, just dump it in Tokyo, test it in Paris and store it in Washington, but keep our Pacific nuclear-free.”

— Vanuatu’s celebrated former ‘Turaga Chief’ Motarilavoa Hilda Lini

“Reaching a commensurate level of urgency and funding against climate change as the Manhattan Project would be a start. That project cost about $34 billion in today’s dollars. Today, we spend $60 billion annually in the U.S. on nuclear weapons. There is plenty of room for prioritizing things that make the world better, not worse.

As J. Robert Oppenheimer said: “Mankind must unite — or we will perish.” I see as much hope as peril in that statement.”

“There isn’t a single jurisdiction in America that has anything approaching an adequate plan to deal with a nuclear detonation,”

According to Irwin Redlener, a public-health expert at Columbia University who specializes in disaster preparedness, [federal] guidelines aren’t enough to prepare a city for a nuclear attack.

That includes the six urban areas that Redlener thinks are the most likely targets of a nuclear attack: New York, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington, DC. These cities are not only some of the largest and densest in the country, but home to critical infrastructure (like energy plants, financial hubs, government facilities, and wireless transmission systems) that are vital to US security.

“It strengthened my own resolve to reduce the threat of nuclear weapons worldwide…There have been some frustrating setbacks in recent years. We’ve learned that even modest progress requires extraordinary effort. But we have also learned that this effort is worth it.”

Dec. 10 2022 (UPI) – Former U.S. President Barack Obama called for a world without nuclear weapons at a nuclear disarmament conference Saturday in Hiroshima, Japan.

“Being truthful about the danger associated with producing atomic bombs and storing radioactive waste would have also meant having to confront the reality that Hanford, Mayak’s sister facility in the United States, along with other nuclear sites around the country, was putting local populations and environment in serious peril.”

“If the world survives this latest nuclear confrontation, a new sense of urgency and dedication must address the reality that the only way to avoid nuclear instability and danger is through coordinated, effective, and verified steps among all states to eliminate nuclear weapons.”

— Jon Wolfsthal, The New Republic 

“The Cold War brought humanity within minutes of annihilation. Now, decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall, we can hear once again the rattling of nuclear sabres,” Guterres said in remarks to the U.N.

UN chief calls for global abolition of nuclear weapons after Putin threat