15-02-2025
Maryland needs to make its voice heard with other states warning against nuclear war
The mushroom cloud of a hydrogen bomb test as part of Operation Ivy in 1952. (Photo from U.S. Department of Energy)
The Doomsday Clock of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists is now at 89 seconds to midnight, inching closer to apocalyptic midnight than ever before, due in part, to the growing risk of nuclear war.
Treaties between Russia and the U.S. have been abrogated. Experts warn that, if nuclear war occurs, it will likely be unintended, the result of dangerous policies compounded by misdeeds, miscommunication, and mistakes. In the '80s, The Nuclear Freeze movement created public pressure that helped lead to a reduction in weapons and risks. Now, there seems to be a growing public concern again that policies need to change.
Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) and House Speaker Adrienne Jones (D-Baltimore County) have written, 'The Maryland Legislature is the representative body of the people and the strongest laws are those that have public input from the start.' In that spirit, the Assembly has an opportunity to pass Senate Joint Resolution 4 and House Joint Resolution 6 on the Use of Nuclear Weapons, responding to an effort by Marylanders, and people across the country, calling for simple changes to dangerous old cold war nuclear policies and take us Back from the Brink.
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In addition to the Doomsday Clock, the U.N. secretary general, editors of over 100 medical journals across the world, former members of Congress and others have been urging the public to understand how close we are to using these weapons. The 2024 Nobel Peace Prize was just awarded to Nihon Hidankyo, an aging group of Japanese atomic bomb survivors who have been telling their terrifying stories, and pleading for nuclear abolition.
Emerging technologies including artificial intelligence increase the risk of unintended escalation and of 'deterrence' failing. Russian President Vladimir Putin talks of using nuclear weapons in Ukraine. Meanwhile, the U.S. is spending enormous amounts of money on upgrading the entire nuclear weapons complex, fueling a new nuclear arms race among all of the nuclear nations and costing Marylanders over $2 billion in taxes in 2024 and the nation nearly $2 trillion over 30 years. The Air Force is planning to put weapons in space that would damage an enemy's early warning system. The Los Alamos weapons lab is ramping up production of plutonium pits for new nuclear weapons. President Donald Trump has expressed a desire to resume testing of nuclear weapons though the last test was in 1992.
Nuclear war does not have to be our fate and people in Maryland are joining others across the U.S. to demand change. Sen. Clarence Lam (D-Howard and Anne Arundel), Del. Nicole Williams (D-Prince George's) and many cosponsors, responding to input from the public, have introduced the joint resolutions on the use of nuclear weapons. They are similar to ones passed in Baltimore, Frederick, Montgomery and Prince Georges counties, all modeled on the five points of the Back from the Brink campaign. They convey the wishes of many Marylanders that our government initiate multilateral talks for a verifiable agreement for nuclear disarmament among the nuclear-armed states.
This could pave the way some day for all nuclear nations to join the U.N. Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, now ratified by 73 nations. In addition, it calls on the U.S. to take four simple steps to reduce the risk of unintended nuclear war: renounce the option of using nuclear weapons first; end the president's sole, unchecked authority to launch a nuclear attack; take nuclear weapons off hair-trigger alert because if launched in error, they cannot be recalled; and cancel plans to replace our entire arsenal with enhanced weapons.
Our resolution, if passed, will help to protect all Marylanders by turning public pressure into political pressure, joining eight other state legislative bodies, and over 75 municipalities and counties who have already passed similar legislation. Our resolution has no fiscal price tag, but in taking a step toward preventing nuclear war, it is priceless.
A New York Times series coincidentally called Back from the Brink, concluded that the public must not wait to address this growing risk of catastrophe: 'Citizens, therefore, need to exert their influence well before the country finds itself in such a situation. We should not allow the next generation to inherit a world more dangerous than the one we were given. '
Delegates and senators, we need your help now while we have time. For our children's sake. Pass this resolution, joining other states across the nation to take us back from the brink of nuclear war.
