As a child, I was in awe of nuclear weapons.

They made me feel safe and strong. I remember at 9

years old during the Indian Independence Day, my

father turned on our television to the national news

and my entire family stayed glued to it for hours.

People on the screen dressed in the saffron, white or

green, colors of the Indian tricolor flag stood still, de-

spite the cold wind, saluting the flag and singing the

Indian national anthem. My heart soared with pride

when our Indian Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Bihari Va-

jpayee, gave the nation hope for the future of the coun-

try.

The event was broadcast live from New Delhi to tele-

vision screens all over the country, including our

home in Mumbai.

After the speech, the televised parade began. The mili-

tary marched to a brass band. Then the crowd ap-

plauded with great pride as the Indian army began pa-

rading the nuclear Agni missiles past them.

Although I had no clue what those long colossal cylin-

ders were capable of, I was thrilled and convinced that

nuclear weapons were good for my country. This

filled me with a sense of power and supremacy over

our arch-rival Pakistan.

I knew of the tensions between India and her

neighbors Pakistan and China. Nuclear weapons

would keep our enemies at bay, I thought as a child. I

believed in nuclear weapons for years, until I joined a

Buddhist organization, Soka Gakkai International, a

few years ago.

The society taught me about the agony of nuclear war

and the terrible consequences that could result from

nuclear weapons. About 105,000 people perished in

Hiroshima and Nagasaki after atomic bombardments

by the United States during World War II. The moth-

ers who survived the Japan bombings gave birth to

children with disabilities. Seventy years later, survi-

vors still suffer from radiation sickness.

Nuclear Options

Do nuclear weapons threaten the human species? Does anyone at ASU care?

Siddhanth Paralkar

Nuclear war and a sustainable future

A nuclear war would prevent a sustainable future,

writes David Krieger, a founder of the Nuclear

Age Peace Foundation, a non-profit global or-

ganization that opposes nuclear weapons and con-

sults with the United Nations. “A sustainable

world is a necessity for the people of the future

who are not yet here to speak and act for them-

selves. It is the responsibility of those of us now

living to speak for them and to do what we can to

pass this planet on intact to the generations that

follow us,” Krieger writes.

Braden Allenby is an American environmental

scientist, environmental attorney and a Professor of

Civil and Environmental Engineering, and of Law

at Arizona State University.

“The biggest threat to sustainability,” he told me,

“remains nuclear weapons. It’s not climate change,

it’s not changes in biodiversity, it’s not nitrogen,

and it’s not phosphorus – its nuclear weap-

ons.” Nuclear war, he said, is the only

“planetary system” that could potentially destroy

life as we know it.

The problem is that almost 70 years since

the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, “people are

forgetting about it.”

While in the military during the Cold War,

Allenby worked with nuclear technology. He un-

derstands that the geopolitical incentives to pos-

sess a nuclear force are strong. He added

that most nuclear weapon states will not give up

their nuclear arsenals in fear of losing status, pres-

tige, and bargaining power with potential adversar-

ies.

When asked whether the world will ever be free of

nuclear weapons, he explained that nuclear weap-

ons can be managed but will not be whisked away.

“We can’t push that genie back in the bottle,” he

told me.

Uncertain outcomes

Barely 30 years after the Japan bombings,

amidst the Cold War, India conducted its first un-

derground nuclear test. My country deployed her

first nuclear missile “Prithvi-I” in 1994. Currently,

India has around 75-110 nuclear capable missiles.

In response to India's second nuclear test

(Operation Shakti), Pakistan detonated five nuclear

devices in 1998.

Today India and Pakistan both have more than 100

nuclear weapons and are continuously expanding

their arsenal. As political and military tensions be-

tween the countries fluctuate, there is a high possi-

bility of a nuclear war.

The people in both these nations live in fear of a

terrorist attack or a major blitzkrieg attack at the

borders of India and Pakistan, either of which may

escalate to a nuclear confrontation.

Will bilateral or multilateral talks between the na-

tions help mitigate these fears or will such talks

further add impetus to the competition?

The outcomes are uncertain.

Meanwhile, the nuclear arms race has taken on an

unprecedented pace across the rest of the world,

with more than 16,000 nuclear warheads reported

by the Federation of American Scientists.

Although today the tensions between the US and

Russia have decreased and chances of a nuclear

war seem quite low, the risk of accidents or illegal

use of the huge nuclear stockpiles is persistent.

An informal survey of ASU students

Now, as a student at ASU, when I tell my fellow

students about the nuclear-themed Independence

Day parade in India, they seem amazed. They

have never heard of such an overt display of nu-

clear power, and they seemed fuzzy on the history

of nuclear weapons.

Late in the fall of 2014, I decided to conduct a

decidedly informal survey on campus by design-

ing a questionnaire to gauge just how aware ASU

students are of nuclear weapons.

When asked about the exact number of nuclear

warheads in the world, only 19.4 percent of the 37

respondents gave the correct answer.

Fifty percent believe that the abolition of nuclear

weapons is possible.

While a little over half of the students said they

were taking actions to improve world peace, only

a third of the students said they wanted to get in-

volved in activism to abolish nuclear weapons.

“I really don’t know where Hiroshima and Na-

gasaki are and have no clue of when the bomb-

ings took place,” one student told me.

Unending tensions

In India, we are acutely aware of nu-

clear weapons. Pakistan and China continue to

geopolitically pressure India, and so the nuclear

arms race continues.

Being in the United States, though, I feel I

have the resources and foundation to at least

make younger generations aware of what nuclear

weapons can do, so we can live in a world with-

out them.

My Buddhist organization, Soka Gakkai Interna-

tional, started a 2011 campaign called, “Our New

Clear Future.” With the primary goal of complete

nuclear weapon abolition by 2030.

Since the program’s inception, members of the or-

ganization have conducted 176 anti-nuclear confer-

ences, events and exhibits in different states. In

2010, atomic bomb survivors from Japan shared

their experiences during a conference aimed at

deepening motivations to achieve world peace.

Soka Gakkai International has also collaborated

with movements like the International Campaign to

Abolish Nuclear Weapons, initiated by Interna-

tional Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear

War. The way to lasting peace can only be achieved

through sincere and compassionate dialogues. Thus

the students of Soka Gakkai International in the

United States have been spurred to create a ground-

swell of public consensus toward nuclear abolition

by 2015, when the next Nuclear Non-Proliferation

Treaty Review Conference is due to be held.

We hope to achieve the complete abolition of nu-

clear weapons by 2030.