"The
USA and Russia between them hold 93% of the world’s arsenal, with
thousands on hair-trigger alert and ready to be launched within seconds
of the order being given. According to SIPRI, to take one example, the USA is due to spend up to $1 trillion over the next 30 years.
This terrifying statistic stands against another published by the
International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), who
are holding their international congress on September 4 in the UK city
of York. Their 2013 report, prepared for a conference studying the
humanitarian impacts of nuclear weapons, indicates that a limited
nuclear war with the use of 100 warheads dropped on cities would lead to
a nuclear winter that could end the lives of up to 2 billion people.
These worrying numbers have led civil society campaigns such as ICAN,
the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), to heavily
promote a nuclear weapons ban treaty, bringing nuclear weapons in line
with chemical and biological weapons as legally prohibited weapons of
mass destruction."
