Editor's Note:
Ira Helfand is an ER Physician and Co-Chair of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985. The opinions expressed in this comment are his.
Read more opinion pieces on CNN.
(CNN) -
Honduras signed this Saturday to ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).
It is the 50th nation to do so.
The agreement has now reached the threshold required to go into effect in 90 days, on January 22.
This event marks the first time since Hiroshima that the simple possession of nuclear weapons will be considered a crime under international law, although it is not binding on nations that do not sign it.
The entry into force of the treaty could not be more timely.
The President of the United States has the ability to launch a nuclear attack on his own authority, without requiring authorization from Congress, the Cabinet, the Vice President, or the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
It is difficult to imagine a more perfect example of the insane danger we continue to live with as long as we maintain huge arsenals of nuclear weapons.
Even a healthy person, possessing good judgment, should not have the ability to throw these terrible weapons.
The consequences are simply too great and the people are, well ... human.
As human beings, we are prone to mistakes, and the technology we have created is too.
LOOK: Satellite images indicate that Russia is preparing to resume testing of its nuclear-powered cruise missile
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Many mistakes can be corrected.
But not a nuclear war.
Studies in the last decade have shown that even a limited nuclear war, involving less than one or two percent of the world's nuclear arsenal, would kill tens of millions directly.
Worse, it would cause a disruption to the global climate and a famine that would put billions of people at risk and wipe out civilization as we know it.
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the danger of nuclear war was growing at an alarming rate.
Experts such as former Defense Secretary William Perry have warned that we are closer to nuclear war than ever, and the
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists'
panel of experts
has set its iconic Doomsday Clock at 100 seconds to midnight, the latest. Possibly close to armageddon ever.
So even as we grapple with the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than a million people worldwide, and the economic turmoil it has caused, it is critical that we move as quickly as possible to eliminate nuclear weapons and nuclear weapons. imminent existential threat they pose.
The nine countries that possess nuclear weapons are moving in exactly the opposite direction.
All are engaged in massive plans to "modernize" their nuclear arsenals and preserve these weapons for decades to come, if they are not used first.
The United States plans to spend more than $ 1 trillion over the next 25 years or so to replace existing weapons and is deploying new, smaller and more usable nuclear warheads and upgrading things like laboratories, delivery systems, early warning systems, etc.
And last week,
The New York Times
reported that the United States took the unprecedented step of pressuring countries that have acceded to the Treaty to withdraw from it.
Since they did not join the TPNW, will the Treaty make a difference?
Yes, according to former Secretary Perry, who has strongly backed the deal.
"The new UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons is an important step towards delegitimizing nuclear war as an acceptable risk to modern civilization," he said.
When the TPNW enters into force, the nine nuclear powers will not automatically disarm.
But non-nuclear nations and civil society can use the agreement to pressure them to make fundamental changes to their nuclear policy.
The TPNW can be used to stigmatize these weapons so that they are no longer viewed as global status symbols and bulwarks of national security, but rather as the threat to human survival, which they really are.
Here in America we must understand that national security can only be achieved through the total elimination of all nuclear weapons around the world.
We urgently need to pursue negotiations with all other nuclear states to achieve a verifiable, enforceable and time-bound agreement to dismantle all nuclear weapons.
We may not be able to persuade the other nuclear states to accept nuclear disarmament, but we don't know because we have never tried.
To support the international effort embodied in the TPNW, scientists and physicians, religious leaders, and advocacy experts have launched the
Back from the Brink
campaign
to build support for the United States to initiate these negotiations.
The campaign also calls on the US to take several intermediate steps to reduce the danger as these negotiations progress.
Consumed with the current covid-19 crisis, which is experiencing a surge, it is difficult for us to focus on the even greater danger posed by nuclear weapons, but we have to deal with this threat.
Our survival and that of our children depends on it.