Disarmament, a week of actions around the world to say no to nuclear spending: here are the possible alternatives to spend over 91 billion dollars

ROMA – Dissemination of data and information, in-depth events, conferences, leaflet distribution and demonstrations. These are the activities that, throughout the world and also in our country, will animate the first “Global Week of Action on Nuclear Spending” promoted by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN – Nobel Prize 2017). The title of this global initiative – which will take place from 16 to 22 September – is clear: “No money for nuclear weapons! No money for nuclear weapons” and starts from the awareness of how unacceptable it is to waste over 91 billion dollars every year to maintain arsenals of weapons of mass destruction.

$2,898 per second to make nuclear weapons. The data comes from the fifth edition of the ICAN report on global nuclear weapons spending: In 2023, China, France, India, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States spent a combined $91.4 billion on their nuclear weapons, equivalent to $173,884 per minute, or $2,898 per second. Over the past five years, $387 billion has been spent on nuclear weapons, with annual spending increasing by a robust 34% over the same period: from $68.2 billion to $91.4 billion per year.

The upcoming events. During the “Global Week of Action on Nuclear Spending” also Without Atomic e Peace Disarmament Network (with all its members) will commit to promoting events, conferences, and in-depth studies on the topic. In particular with the live social webinar scheduled for Tuesday 17 September at 6 pm entitled “Nuclear arsenals: but how much do you cost us?”featuring Lisa Clark, Alessja Trama and Francesco Vignarca and a video contribution by Susi Snyder, who coordinates ICAN’s program on in-depth studies on this topic.

How else to spend $91 billion. The possible ones alternative this waste of public money could lead to much greater benefits for our societies. With one year of spending on nuclear weapons, one could:

1) – Converting more than 16.5 million homes to solar power

2) – Ensuring a year of clean water and sanitation for 1.2 billion people

3) – Hire 1.5 million high school science teachers

4) – Vaccinating 2 billion people against coronavirus and intervening against other epidemics

5) – Paying a third of the costs of climate change adaptation in so-called “developing” countries

The voices that will make themselves heard. The Global Week of Action will serve to spread this information and above all to make the voices of those who oppose the maintenance (or rather, the expansion) of nuclear arsenals heard: an issue that concerns us all, so it is up to all of us to react to the absurd sums of money wasted to build and maintain them.

The destructive potential of nuclear weapons. Nuclear weapons are the only devices ever created that have the capacity to destroy all complex life on Earth. Less than 0.1% of the explosive power of the current global nuclear arsenal would be enough to cause devastating agricultural collapse and widespread famine.

Inconceivable decisions. The decision by nuclear-weapon states to divert public resources from health care and other urgent social needs to weapons of mass destruction is unconscionable. Nuclear weapons have health consequences that extend for generations, and it would not be possible to provide meaningful relief even to those who survive a nuclear explosion.