The scientific foundation of the movements to eliminate nuclear weapons and to address the climate crisis.

Abstract

Over several decades, scientific research published in peer-reviewed journals has informed activists working for nuclear disarmament by describing and providing the evidence for the health and environmental damage nuclear weapons have inflicted, even when they are not used in war. During the Cold War of the 1970s and 1980s, books, research articles, and independent studies about the effects of nuclear weapons were published around the world. Nuclear disarmament campaigning based upon this scientific evidence and humanitarian concerns reached a peak during this period. In the mid-2000s, a renewed focus on the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons emerged. All of the existing scientific evidence about the health and environmental impacts of nuclear weapons was gathered together and brought into the service of what would ultimately become the HINW (Humanitarian Impacts of Nuclear Weapons) process, leading to the negotiation and adoption of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) in 2017. A new generation of activists, which recognizes the threat of nuclear war as intrinsically connected to the climate crisis, has emerged. A growing number of health and peace organizations have made explicit connections between the climate crisis, nuclear disarmament, and public health.