THE CLIMATE-NUCLEAR NEXUS

INTRODUCTION
Figure 1: Existential threats of our time: nuclear explosions and carbon emissions
(Source: Left – CTBTO Flickr; Right – Shutterstock)
In January 2015, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists
moved their symbolic ‘Doomsday Clock’ to three minutes
to midnight, because of the gathering dangers
of climate change and nuclear weapons, signalling
the gravest threat to humanity since the throes of
the Cold War. In his 2007 book The Seventh Decade:
The New Shape of Nuclear Danger, Jonathan Schell
writes on the linkages between nuclear weapons and
global warming: “The two perils have a great deal in
common. Both are the fruit of swollen human power—
in the one case, the destructive power of war; in the
other, the productive power of fossil-fuel energy. Both
put stakes on the table of a magnitude never present
before in human decision making. Both threaten life
on a planetary scale. Both require a fully global response.
Anyone concerned by the one should be concerned
with the other. It would be a shame to save the
Earth from slowly warming only to burn it up in an
instant in a nuclear war.” 1
This powerful statement points to the important but
largely neglected linkages between two key dangers
of our time. The nuclear menace has survived the
Cold War and will continue to threaten life as long
as its destructive potential persists. Similarly, global
warming is increasingly posing severe dangers for
natural and social systems in many regions of the
world, as it could exceed their adaptive capacities
and undermine international stability. This article
examines the linkages between nuclear and climate
risks and considers an approach to move from living
under these security threats to building sustainable
peace.
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