Book contents
- Planet in Peril
- Reviews
- Planet in Peril
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Fictional Vignettes
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction
- Part I Existential Threats: The Four Most Pressing Dangers Facing Humankind
- 2 Fossil Fuels and Climate Change
- 3 Nukes for War and Peacetime
- 4 Pandemics, Natural or Bioengineered
- 5 Artificial Intelligence: Extreme Reward and Risk
- Part II Strategies and Obstacles: The Solutions We Need, and What’s Preventing Them from Being Realized
- Part III Sensible Steps for Today’s World: Powerful Measures We Can Implement Right Away
- Part IV The Middle-Term Goal: New International Tools for the Late Twenty-First Century
- Part V The Long-Term Goal: Envisioning a Mature System of Global Governance for the Twenty-Second Century
- Endnotes
- Bibliography
- Index
3 - Nukes for War and Peacetime
from Part I - Existential Threats: The Four Most Pressing Dangers Facing Humankind
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 October 2022
- Planet in Peril
- Reviews
- Planet in Peril
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Fictional Vignettes
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction
- Part I Existential Threats: The Four Most Pressing Dangers Facing Humankind
- 2 Fossil Fuels and Climate Change
- 3 Nukes for War and Peacetime
- 4 Pandemics, Natural or Bioengineered
- 5 Artificial Intelligence: Extreme Reward and Risk
- Part II Strategies and Obstacles: The Solutions We Need, and What’s Preventing Them from Being Realized
- Part III Sensible Steps for Today’s World: Powerful Measures We Can Implement Right Away
- Part IV The Middle-Term Goal: New International Tools for the Late Twenty-First Century
- Part V The Long-Term Goal: Envisioning a Mature System of Global Governance for the Twenty-Second Century
- Endnotes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Despite significant reductions in nuclear arsenals after the Cold War, the world’s nuclear nations still are pointing thousands of warheads at each other, using systems that are vulnerable to human error, miscalculation, or cyberwarfare. Over the past decades, humankind has come hair-raisingly close in several well-documented instances to unleashing full-scale nuclear war. The logic of arms races makes it very hard for nations to resist the temptation of modernizing and building up their arsenals. On the other hand, new designs for nuclear reactors – whether for fission or fusion processes – hold out the tantalizing possibility of safe, cheap, and abundant electricity. Nuclear-generated electricity does not release greenhouse gases, and therefore could play a key role in creating a sustainable energy system over the coming century.
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- Planet in PerilHumanity's Four Greatest Challenges and How We Can Overcome Them, pp. 36 - 45Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022