Senior Policy Analyst Dr. Sara Kutchesfahani and Program Assistant Erin Connolly wrote an op-ed and published it in conjunction with the Outrider Foundation. An excerpt is below.
Through leading the March for Our Lives, and involvement in other movements like the Women’s March and myriad climate change groups, young people are making sure their voices are heard. The drivers for this increased activism are all around us. We can directly feel and see the effects of climate change through the increased intensity of hurricanes, hotter summers, and colder winters.
The Women’s March reflects the latest efforts to support equality, opportunity, and security for women. Gun violence is another all too tangible issue for a new generation of voters: a seemingly endless amount of shootings, campus lockdowns, and mandatory “active shooter drills” make the discussion of gun safety policies inescapable.
There is no denying that nuclear weapons policy is complex and confusing. Some might even call it intimidating. It is not an easy topic for non-experts to engage on. But despite nuclear policy’s inaccessibility—and maybe even because of it—nuclear war remains a significant global threat, if not the most significant global threat.
Nuclear weapons and climate change are often hailed as the greatest threats to international security. But, while climate change has garnered attention and inspired significant domestic grassroots action, younger generations of voters remain largely unaware of the American nuclear arsenal and the billions of dollars spent maintaining it. Climate change is a serious issue that must be confronted, and a recent report highlighted devastating consequences before the end of the century. But only 100 15kt bombs—out of the current global stockpile of almost 15,000 nuclear weapons—need to detonate in order to create “Nuclear Winter” and make life on earth uninhabitable.
