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| Some of our lucky delegates meeting Dr. Ira Helfand after his keynote speech at the 2016 Sacramento UNA Dinner |
On Sunday, October 23, 2016, The United Nations Association of Sacramento and the Sacramento Physicians for Social Responsibility chapter hosted a dinner in honor of United Nations Day. The theme of this event was a celebration of the successes of the Sustainable Development Goals and how we can prevent nuclear warfare.
There were
numerous prominent speakers present, including the United Nations Youth
Observer, Nicol Perez. Nicol discussed her role in the UN and how important
youth voices are in the international policy. Not only do they have unique
perspectives on how to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals targets, they
have innovative thought processes for preventing warfare and increasing empathy
in the global sphere. She also spoke on how exhilarating her life has become
and what an honor it is to represent the global youth when speaking to leading
members of nation-states.
The
keynote speaker was Dr. Ira Helfand, the esteemed co-president of International
Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War. Dr Ira Helfand won the 1985 Nobel
Peace Prize for his work within the International Physicians for the Prevention
of Nuclear War, particularly for encouraging multilateral communication about
the prevention of future nuclear wars. By having Soviet and American physicians
and experts work in the international sphere to prevent further nuclear
warfare, Helfand demonstrated excellence in his capacity to give international
relationships a quality of unity rather than conflict. His contribution can
therefore be seen as a step on the way to a bilateral and controlled
disarmament.
In Helfand’s
keynote speech he talked of the dangers of limited nuclear war as well as
large-scale nuclear war. In the event that a large-scale nuclear conflict
arises due to increased hostilities between the U.S. and Russia and the proxy
war in Syria, it is possible for the largest nuclear war that the world has
ever seen will ensue. In this case, the climate will be disrupted and the land
from up to 62 miles from the bomb will be entirely sterilized of all life. In
the case of a limited nuclear war between India and Pakistan, the damage to the
climate could cause mass casualties and a food storage so severe that our world
would quickly use up the 90 day food storage and people would starve to death
on an unprecedented scale. Ultimately, Dr. Helfand adopts a constructivist
viewpoint in regards to nuclear weapons when he states, “Nuclear weapons are
not a force of nature, or an act of God. It’s something we as humans have
created.” Meaning, nuclear weapons are something we created with great minds,
and with those same great minds, we can disarm the world of nuclear weapons. He
also highlighted the danger of vulnerabilities in cyber security and
underscored the fact that the US Pentagon is hacked around six times a day. If
our cybersecurity continues to be vulnerable, then the world is vulnerable to
the devastating possibility that outside nonstate actors or other states could
potentially hack into the safeguards protecting nuclear weapons in any nation
and create global chaos and mass death.
At the end
of his speech there was a Q&A segment where guests could submit questions
pertaining to this issue. The question that was received most often was, “How
can we as normal citizens, and not policy makers, take a stand and become
involved nuclear disarmament?” Dr. Helfand urged the audience to call and write
letters to the White House’s toll free number and urge them to spend less money
updating nuclear weapons and warfare and instead prioritize the health of the
world and our nation. In the 1980s a large civil movement renouncing nuclear
war was successful in reducing the nuclear capacities of every nation in the
world. We as a nation and as global citizens can make a difference if we unite
against the perils of nuclear war. The public comment line for the White House
is 202-456-1414.
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