Nuclear Disarmament Essay Research Paper In a

Nuclear Disarmament Essay, Research Paper

In a world today consisting of technological advances in medicine and science comes some controversial issues. Such issues involving these advances are the development and use of nuclear warfare. These weapons of mass destruction have been around for almost half a century and pose a great threat to the future of mankind itself. Some extremists believe that all of the nuclear power countries should eliminate all atomic capabilities, while others seem to want to stockpile their military with thousands of warheads. Most leaders of countries with nuclear power want to keep their status as a superpower, and leaders of smaller less developed countries either want to have this power or get rid of it all together. The problem that arises is that not only do the superpowers want to maintain their ability to destroy, but also to expand it. A chain reaction begins to show itself between the nuclear inclined countries thus creating an arms race, in tern other superpowers see themselves being left in the dark and to establish themselves they must keep up in the race. Some independent countries of the arms race bring up the issue of just down sizing the amount of weapons these larger countries have. But a conflict of who starts first comes into play, and therefore creates another controversy. So some believe that the answer is to just disarm all nuclear weapons.

Although atomic bombs have only been used twice in the last 50 years for war purposes the damaged clearly shows vast destruction to cities and people’s lives. The reason for the use of these two bombs was to end a war and create peace between the countries of the world. But in doing so the long term effect was the cold War that went on for about 45 years. Although there weren’t actual casualties of this war, there were times when nuclear missiles were going to be exchanged by opposing countries. This exchange would be won by the country with the most weapons of mass destruction, so an arms race began between the United States and the former U.S.S.R., creating tension and hysteria throughout the world. By the end of this arms race, the United States and U.S.S.R. created enough war heads to blow the entire world up eleven times. Most people find this figure to be outrageous but believable. Since the end of the Cold War, relations between the superpowers of the world have been well, but the enormous amount of atomic weapons still exist. The question of the necessity of these devices brings controversy to the leaders of the world. But the idea that is brought up is if their country will be safe, but in actuality the idea should be if the people of the world will be safe. The problem is that all they want to have is the own national security.

Not only are the direct effects of nuclear war devasting, but the indirect effects are just as bad or in some cases worse. The emission of radiation and other harmful rays cause burns, blindness, cancer, nuclear clouds and nuclear fallout. After a bomb is dropped the target is destroyed and then some, including neighboring towns. After a few days when the winds begin to pick up and drift the fallout and clouds from ground zero, or the place where it was dropped, the hazardous materials in the air begin to effect other countries and even nations on the opposite side of the globe. “Radioactive clouds reached the west of the U.S. after the Chernobyl disaster happened. The effects are worldwide.” (Lebow p.63) These clouds also spread to Great Britain and Germany. Even though this was an accident this could very well happen during an atomic bombing. Radiation and fallout aren’t the only side effects of nuclear war, but the amount of light produced after an atomic explosion. The light is many times brighter than that of the sun, and even though it lasts less than a second, it leaves flash burns, blindness and even forms of skin cancer. “If one is not killed by the actual detonation, the flash burns alone can cause horrible scars.” (Dyson p. 117) The flash burns aren’t just contained in one area, but where ever skin is exposed is most likely to suffer.

Ever since the first atomic bomb, just about every country of the world with military and armed forces have been trying to grasp the power of splitting atoms in order to create the super weapon of the century. The problem with everyone having this capability is that it will be used just as a child would play with a new toy. The presidents and dictators would be trigger happy and waiting for their foes to make a wrong move, then just blasting them off the face of the earth. This would then cause other countries to get involved and eventually everyone will be in World War III, except the casualties will be much greater. Some of the leaders who are aggressive won’t even wait for someone to make the wrong move, they’ll just press the button without hesitation, thus creating a war. “The small action of a country effects everyone.” (Sagan p.39) The alliances of the world today won’t let one of their allies be destroyed without a fight, so more and more countries begin to jump into the war, and finally one of the nuclear superpowers launches its stockpile of long range atomic missiles and destroys the Earth.

Since different acts on testing of atomic weapons have been passed, countries have been conducting them underground and out of surveillance sight. The problem with this is that what one k