THE LAST BOMB
Pathways to Nuclear Zero
In the new era in which both US and Russian leaders call for a world without nuclear weapons, the time has come for these and other initiatives to be reviewed, revised and blogged into readiness for presentation to nuclear governments.
DE-ALERT
The US and Russia still have thousands of nuclear bombs on hair trigger.
Obama has promised to work with Medvedev to move off Cold-War alert status. It can be done easily, quickly and simply. In 1999 by order of Prime Minister Blair the UK de-alerted launch of their nuclear bombs from a "time to fire" of "a few minutes" to "several days." No announcement was made. Such executive action could be taken jointly by Presidential decree in Russia and the US.
"The big five should recognize the paramount importance of standing down the world’s arsenals and extending the principle equally to all nuclear states – including themselves. Developing and putting into practice a new global consensus on de-alerting would go far to induce other nations to cooperate on the host of other vexing proliferation and safety hazards that still beset the nuclear universe."
“I really strongly believe in de-alerting. We still have land-based missiles on hair-trigger alert as do the Russians, and we each say we do it because of the other side. The truth is that neither side needs to be on hair-trigger alert anymore. We could create a delay of a week. Move the warheads somewhere else.
DE-ACTIVATE
"Pit stuffing" can quickly and easily deactivate nuclear bombs. Any nuclear bomb can be permanently de-activated in two minutes by a simple procedure called Pit Stuffing. It is irreversible and easily verifiable.
"Pit-stuffing has the potential to be a remarkable new tool in the arms control toolbox, enabling fast dramatic reductions in nuclear arms -- and verification that those arms have really been dismantled. This approach could make a huge contribution to the goal of ensuring the "transparency" and "irreversibility" of nuclear arms reductions, repeatedly agreed to by Presidents Clinton and Yeltsin. This technology can offer policy-makers new options -- and deprive them of excuses for not pursuing deep, transparent, and irreversible reductions in nuclear arms."
At the United Nations in 1968 Khrushchev called for nuclear abolition in 4 years. In 1984 Gorbachev said the US and Russia could get rid of their bombs in 15 years. Reagan suggested 10 years. Mayors for Peace, the European Parliament, World Parliamentarians and the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation call for abolition by 2020. Global Zero now proposes sometime after 2045. This suggests a lack of urgency.
In order to sharpen awareness of strategies to hasten the removal of the nuclear threat, “The Last Bomb: Pathways to Nuclear Zero” will present audio and video reports throughout the coming month-long May, 2010 NPT Review at the UN. See schedules, issues and background at
Reaching Critical Will
An expanded version of our most recent CUNY TV program, "The Bomb in the Age of Obama," will soon be available on Netflix.
We have also arranged to launch a new Russian-language version of the forthcoming program online at Google Video. Links to both versions will be posted on the NPT entry in Wikipedia.
The Last Bomb includes links and information on:
Bruce Blair - Center for Defense Information
David E. Hoffman (author of
The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and Its Dangerous Legacy,"
See also:
Hair-Trigger: The Forgotten Danger
Lowering N Alert – Walter Pincus, Washington Post
De-alerting: The First Step - Arjun Makhijani
UN endorses re-framing de-alerting proposal
Clarifying de-alerting: Stephen Starr
Matthew Bunn - Federation American Scientists Report
THE CONTINUING DILEMMA
To help hasten the process we offer encouragement, unsolicited advice, criticism and the sometimes antagonistic assistance of an impatient world.
And in our daily
NEWS SERVICE we will follow, monitor and watchdog progress toward the long-promised and already long-overdue end to the global nuclear threat.
Using the rapidly-expanding global social networks of the web - the new central nervous system of all humankind - "The Last Bomb" will invite, gather, explore, discuss, develop and present to governments, leaders and advisers disarmament proposals and timetables emerging from the blended wisdom of the world's concerned citizens.
PROJECTS
As part of their series of annual
Hiroshima Day TV Specials, CUNY TV
in New York we will present a new program now in preparation on the NPT Review at the UN in May and its implications for reaching zero. The program will play on Fri, August sixth and through the weekend. The program will be available globally through the “The Last Bomb” YouTube Channel and Netflix.
The earlier People v The Bomb series – launched with support from the War & Peace Foundation and the World Federalists – can be seen on Google
here.
FILMS
Sample: FAIL SAFE - Closing ten wrenching minutes
VIDEOS
Sample: Lisa Putkey explains everything in 3 minutes. MUST SEE!
DOCUMENTARIES
Sample: NUCLEAR TIPPING POINT - Trailer (2min 50secs)
DOCUMENTS & TREATIES
BOOKS
G.S.I list
Rethinking Nuclear list
BOOKS JUST OUT:
BEYOND ARMS CONTROL: Challenges and Choices (Reaching Critical Will)
APOCALYPSE NEVER: Forging the Path to a Nuclear Weapon-Free World by Tad Daly (Rutgers University Press)
The Last Bomb is a service of
WORD OPINION FORUM
- a continuing project
initiated by NGOs including World Federalists, War&Peace Foundation and the UN Earth Day Peace Bell event.
THE LAST BOMB editor is KEVIN SANDERS, journalist and UN NGO representative for the War&Peace Foundation and the World Federalists
covering nuclear disarmament affairs. At the UN he writes and produces World Opinion Forum and People v The Bomb, a continuing TV and online series of events, reports and videos. He was ABC cultural affairs commentator, CNN science editor
and Chairman of the UN Earth Day Peace Bell ceremony founded by Margaret Mead - an event he now hosts each year.
Longer bio