November 3rd, 2019
By: Haris Ahmad[1]
Stephen Hawkins once said, “Life
on Earth is at the ever-increasing risk of being wiped out by a disaster, such
as a sudden global nuclear war, a genetically engineered virus or other dangers
we have not yet thought of”. It is our wrong choices that are the biggest threat to us and can lead to
our extinction. We humans collectively have fought many wars on this planet.
From the first war in Mesopotamia in 2700 BC between the Sumerians and the Elamites
till World War II. It is the basic
nature of humans to dominate over others, showing themselves superior over
others, who they see as inferior. As a result of these wars, we have not only
caused damage to ourselves but also to this beloved planet. We have developed
weapons of mass destruction and these weapons can wipe us out in very little
time if used.
The biggest threat to us, which is from ourselves, is a nuclear
war. Nuclear power can be used to create
energy that, in the process of making doesn’t produce any polluting gases and it
doesn’t contribute to global warming. However, once wrongly used, even the best
thing in the world can become the worst. We have used nuclear power to make
nuclear bombs, which are extremely hazardous and radioactive once used.
Image Source: nationalinterest.org
There are a lot of
nuclear warheads in the world right now. The estimated number of total nuclear
warheads is 13,890. This is a dangerously high number of such weapons and
nowadays, any major escalation of a strong conflict between nuclear power
possessing countries can cause a nuclear war. Recently, we have seen many
conflicts of high intensity between many countries that possess this evil
power. We have seen many major conflicts between Pakistan and India, who have
seemed to remain enemies. Among these conflicts, the main conflict is between
Iran and the U.S. The intensity of this conflict increased further by the
killing of Qasem Soleimani, the Iranian major general.
All of these conflicts have brought us, humans; to the edge
and the best example of these war-leading conflicts is as if we all are
standing on a cliff tied to each other with a rope. Even if one major conflict
rises up and someone pushes one person to fall off the cliff, we all will fall
with him as we are tied to him. By this, I mean that these nuclear bombs will
not only damage your enemies but will also damage you. This damage will
eventually kill you. Before coming to what nuclear bombs can do to us, I'd like
to highlight an example of what has it done before. On August 6, 1945. It was
just a normal day in Hiroshima, Japan, when the people heard a plane flying
high up in the skies. They already knew that the plane was an enemy bomber plane,
as at that time, Japanese planes couldn’t fly that high. It was an American
B-29 bomber who dropped a nuclear bomb on the city. That nuclear bomb killed
70,000 people and three days later, another bomb was dropped on Nagasaki
killing 40,000 more people.
Another example is Chernobyl,
which will become habitable again after 20,000 years. Some of you may be
thinking that the bombs will only affect a small area. Well, you’re wrong. The
strongest bomb today is the tsar bomb, which is 1500 times more dangerous than
the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs combined. Just think of what these bombs can
do. Firstly, after the explosion, there won’t be a rise in temperatures. It
will result in global cooling and cause a nuclear winter. Consequently, it
would damage the ozone layer and later it will cause droughts, which will be decades-long. These types of conditions would kill nearly all life on Earth just in a
few months.
Here comes the responsibility, which lies in the leadership of
today’s world to resolve their conflicts wisely, promote peace and invest their
energies and resources in making this world a better place to live for all the
living species.
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