Sleepwalking to Armageddon: The Threat of Nuclear Annihilation

by Helen Caldicott (Editor)

Overview

A frightening but necessary assessment of the threat posed by nuclear weapons in the twenty-first century, edited by the world's leading antinuclear activist

With the world's attention focused on climate change and terrorism, we are in danger of taking our eyes off the nuclear threat. But rising tensions between Russia and NATO, proxy wars erupting in Syria and Ukraine, a nuclear-armed Pakistan, and stockpiles of aging weapons unsecured around the globe make a nuclear attack or a terrorist attack on a nuclear facility arguably the biggest threat facing humanity.

In Sleepwalking to Armageddon, pioneering antinuclear activist Helen Caldicott assembles the world's leading nuclear scientists and thought leaders to assess the political and scientific dimensions of the threat of nuclear war today. Chapters address the size and distribution of the current global nuclear arsenal, the history and politics of nuclear weapons, the culture of modern-day weapons labs, the militarization of space, and the dangers of combining artificial intelligence with nuclear weaponry, as well as a status report on enriched uranium and a shocking analysis of spending on nuclear weapons over the years.

The book ends with a devastating description of what a nuclear attack on Manhattan would look like, followed by an overview of contemporary antinuclear activism. Both essential and terrifying, this book is sure to become the new bible of the antinuclear movement—to wake us from our complacency and urge us to action.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781620972465
Publisher:	New Press, The
Publication date:	11/07/2017
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

The world's leading spokesperson for the antinuclear movement, Helen Caldicott is the co-founder of Physicians for Social Responsibility, a nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize, and the 2003 winner of the Lannan Prize for Cultural Freedom. She is the author of The New Nuclear Danger, Nuclear Power Is Not the Answer, and Loving This Planet. She divides her time between Australia and the United States.

Table of Contents

Part I: 21st Century Nuclear Weaponry

1. Seth Baum – Assessing Catastrophic Risk
2. Hans Kristensen - Modernization of Nuclear Weaponry
3. Alan Robock – Nuclear Smoke and the Climatic Effects of Nuclear War
4. Bruce Gagnon – Addicted to Weapons
5. Bob Alvarez –The Plutonium Problem
6. Max Tegmark – Nuclear Weapons and Artificial Intelligence
7. Hugh Gusterson – Weapons Scientists, Up Close

Part II: 21st Century Nuclear Politics
1. William Hartung – Nuclear Politics
2. Noam Chomsky – National Politics Versus National Security
3. Robert Parry – The Existential Madness of Putin-Bashing

Part III: Solutions
1. Ray Acheson – Law and Morality at the Vienna Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons
2. Tim Wright – A New Movement to Ban Nuclear Weapons
3. Susi Snyder – Don’t Bank on the Bomb
4. David Krieger – Nuclear Weapons and Possible Human Extinction: The Heroic Marshall Islanders
5. Holly Barker – Persistent Violence and Silent Suffering: Marshallese Migrants in Washington State

Contributors include:

Robert Alvarez, the Institute for Policy Studies

Seth Baum, Global Catastrophic Risk Institute

Noam Chomsky

Bruce Gagnon, Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space

William Hartung, Center for International Policy

Hans Kristensen, the Federation of American Scientists

Robert Parry, journalist

Theodore A. Postol, professor emeritus of science, technology, and national security policy at MIT

Max Tegmark, professor of physics at MIT

Editorial Reviews

08/21/2017
These short, concise essays assembled by Caldicott (If You Love This Planet: A Plan to Save the Earth), a longtime antinuclear campaigner, seek to renew public awareness, in an era preoccupied with global warming, of the looming threat posed by nuclear weapons. The authors, who include scientists, academics, and activists, share their well-informed and frequently fascinating perspectives on various issues in play. These include the environmental impact of nuclear-fuel disposal, the increased risk of hostilities in a period of political uncertainty, the “militarization of everything around us” in a nuclear-armed society, and the prospect of control being ceded to artificial intelligence. They also include the disastrous environmental consequences of even “limited” nuclear warfare. As physicist Max Tegmark puts it in his contribution, the Cold War doctrine of mutually assured destruction should now be renamed self-assured destruction, as recent models have confirmed that the trigger to nuclear winter was originally underestimated: any single nation’s use of nuclear weapons would have a dire effect on the planet’s atmosphere and weather patterns. Given the scope of the threat addressed, this succinct collection should be a must-read for government officials, policy makers, activists, and concerned citizens everywhere. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for Sleepwalking to Armageddon:
"The authors, who include scientists, academics, and activists, share their well-informed and frequently fascinating perspectives on various issues in play. . . [T]his succinct collection should be a must-read for government officials, policy makers, activists, and concerned citizens everywhere."
—Publishers Weekly

Praise for Dr. Helen Caldicott:
"Dr. Helen Caldicott has the rare ability to combine science with passion, logic with love, and urgency with humor."
—Naomi Klein

From the Publisher