Newton Dialogues on Peace and War holds peace vigils every Monday afternoon in Newton Centre — and has done so ever since its founding in 2002. NDPW aims to foster dialogue particularly around nuclear disarmament.
In 2019, Newton’s City Council passed its “Back from the Brink” resolution, originally introduced by NDPW, calling for the President to lead negotiations with the other 8 nuclear powers to sign the Treaty for the Prevention of Nuclear War, aiming for verifiable global nuclear disarmament.
We are closer to nuclear war than ever before. On January 28, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists reset its Doomsday Clock from “90 seconds to midnight” to 89 seconds – the closest it has ever been to midnight.
The clock symbolizes existential threats: nuclear war, climate change, global pandemics, and artificial intelligence. The risk of nuclear war leads this list and has increased exponentially in recent years.
This year’s reset is a chilling indicator of escalating global tensions: rapid expansion of global nuclear arsenals, climate change, rapid evolution of AI technologies without adequate safeguards. The world is one miscalculation away from nuclear war and annihilation of all life on earth.
Recent conflicts are accelerating the risk of launch of nuclear weapons. Disinformation and conspiracy theories are threat multipliers. Deploying a single “battlefield” nuclear weapon will inevitably result in a global nuclear exchange, with hundreds of nuclear bombs launched, triggering nuclear winter followed by nuclear famine.
It’s time to wake up! The alarm clock has reached 89 seconds to midnight. We have the power to change the clock’s trajectory.
Newton residents must act by demanding our elected officials pass legislation directing the President to start negotiations to sign the Treaty for the Prevention of Nuclear War.
See masspeaceaction.org, www.nuclearban.us/w2w, and preventnuclearwar.org.
Dan Shaw
Newton Corner
Daniel Shaw is a retired psychiatrist and a member of Newton Dialogues on Peace and War and Mass Peace Action.
