englishnuclearweapons

[englishnuclearweapons]

THE POSITIVE THINGS ABOUT NUCLEAR WEAPONS WILL NEVER CHANGE ALL THE DAMAGE THEY HAVE PROVOKED

Nuclear weapons are high-powered explosives and are mainly used during the war, are devices designed to release energy explosively as a result of nuclear fission (usually referred to as atomic bombs) and nuclear fusion (referred to as thermonuclear bombs or hydrogen bombs) or both. Taking into account that we are talking about a nuclear process, it could have many consequences, the most visible consequence in the short term, above all is the large number of deaths they produce, for example throughout the years 1955 to 2003 is approximately 15 million deaths of innocent people due to nuclear weapons, and the consequence long-term is the damage it causes in environmental terms; nuclear weapons represent the greatest threat to the Earth's environment, producing radioactive particles that fall to the ground and contaminate the air, soil, water, and food supply. In addition to this, there are advances in different branches of science which are positive things the use of nuclear weapons left us especially in medicine, although it sounds almost impossible to believe since it is very difficult to think that such a dangerous device has something good, in reality, it was. The 20th century brought deaths, due to the use of nuclear weapons, furthermore, the use of these weapons continues affecting the environment, among others. Despite this, its creation has made it possible to find advances in other branches of science.

Since August 9, 1945, when an atomic bomb was dropped in Nagasaki by the United States government to end WWII, the use of atomic bombs has been reduced and has also changed but this doesn’t mean that they have stopped, they haven't used them for actual wars, but they have been testing different nuclear weapons in oceans, empty lands, among others. But this was not supposed to happen since in the 20th century a test ban treaty was supposed to end things like that since in this century these kinds of bombs were used in wars and were very destructive, we can see this in cities like Hiroshima and Nagasaki where American atomic bombs were dropped, nuclear weapons have side effects, apart from destroying entire cities it can also affect the environment and with this affecting the people living in these places.

In the first place we know that in the 20th century atomic bombs seemed to be the only solution to solve wars, and although they did a lot of damage, they were effective in that way, however, it also increased climate change, though it wasn’t as bad as it is now, it does affect the environment of the place that it was dropped, despite that it was not very worrying, meanwhile now in the 21st-century nuclear weapons are not needed because the world isn’t at war, but if nuclear weapons were to be used now, it would make a very bad impact in the environment, because just by our consumerism and pollution created by things like cars and factories, climate change is already really bad, if a weapon were to be dropped, climate change could reach a high peak and the damage produced would not be very easy to reverse, it would disrupt earth’s ecosystems and reduce global temperature which can result in food shortages all around the world. In addition, “the detonation of an atomic bomb creates radioactive dust that falls out of the sky into the area around the site of the explosion. Wind and water currents carry the dust across a much larger radius than the initial explosion, where it contaminates the ground, water supply, and the food chain” (Lemon, 2018).

Subsequently, if we continue talking about how the environment was affected in the 20th century due to wars and nuclear weapons involved, the damage produced by these types of weapons shows us that the radiation was not only presented to the cities where the bomb was dropped but also in cities near it. Besides this, due to the use of these nuclear weapons, other things are also affected, such as rivers and bodies of water, causing them to be contaminated and affecting living organisms because humans and animals could drink or use it causing possible poisoning, an example was what happened in Japan after the American bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the flow of these bodies of water carried the contamination in the water to the cities in other parts of Japan and then to the ocean, expanding pollution beyond the country of origin. Finally, another consequence in environmental terms was the massive heatwave that occurred due to the explosion of the bomb that affected the production of nitric oxides that weaken the ozone layer.

In addition, we need to understand every time a country decides to confront others using nuclear weapons, it created a lot of bad things in our lives. In these bad things, we can evidence many short and long-term consequences, but what we see the most are all the deaths and injuries that people had to suffer.

Commencing the topic about the deaths that nuclear weapons provoked, we have to say that this happens since nuclear weapons are the most dangerous weapons on earth, these weapons can destroy an entire city and, in this way, can cause the death of millions of people and ruin the lives of future generations. Over the years, in all the countries that have decided to get this type of weapon, there were a lot of injured and dead people, many ill people could have fatal diseases or diseases that could be controlled but they were still bad.  

Part of the evidence we found about deaths caused by these weapons, is a study done in 2017 where all these deaths between 1951 and 1973 are drawn, these statistics indicate that between these years in the United States there were between 340,000 and 460,000 deaths, also this study showed that these weapons caused the death of 11,000 people because they gave them thyroid cancer (a disease that may be due to nuclear weapons), then we can conclude that many of the citizens of the countries that have these weapons are suffering all the consequences, but above all, they are suffering a great approach to death (Finaud, 2020).  

On the other hand, even if we do not think about it, nuclear weapons have positive things, which they have contributed to humanity. Among the positive effects of nuclear weapons, we find that although atomic science was born out of the war, humanity saw the potential of its application in other branches of science, such as medicine or also led to the human being to discover that through "the radioactive particles that nuclear tests left in the atmosphere have served to solve mysteries in biology or begin to understand the importance of climate change" (Mediavilla, 2013).

Furthermore, we can see the medical advances that generate the use of nuclear weapons, we find in particular the discovery that neurons regenerate until death, this is because for a long time it was thought that adult brains did not produce new neurons, but rather Cells were only created during our early stages of development, but in 1998, Swedish scientists conducted an experiment with volunteers who had agreed to dissect their brains after death, taking into account that they had previously received a compound to see if they had developed or no new neurons, the result was positive but it all failed when they realized that the compound used to carry out the monitoring was toxic, it was not replicated again "but during the nuclear tests of the first years of the Cold War a team of researchers from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm The researchers, who have published their results in the journal Cell, have used the large amounts of carbon-14 released by nuclear explosions to track neuron production in the brains of various volunteers. This radioactive isotope, which doubled its presence in the atmosphere during the 50s and 60s, was absorbed by plants and incorporated into the cells of all living beings, including humans” (Mediavilla, 2013). Thanks to this they were able to verify that 1,400 new neurons appear every day in a process that can be relevant to learning, memory, and organization.

Finally, we can conclude that the use of nuclear weapons has caused great damage to our society, although its use has been greatly reduced since the 20th century, it is still there and we continue to see the great consequences that it causes. From our point of view, nuclear weapons are one of the most damaging devices that have ever existed, causing millions of deaths in a matter of seconds, damaging the environment causing damage that is totally irreparable but still has something positive, even if it is a little difficult to see and is that its use allowed advances in some scientific discoveries, especially in medicine. But although it has helped a lot in science, it seems to us that this will never allow us to say that its use is better, since science will never repair all the damage that was caused by the use of these weapons, so although there are things positive, we believe that nuclear weapons have more negative than positive things and should never be used.

REFERENCES:  

Finaud, 2020. 75 years later, nuclear weapons still kill,  Web site from GCSP. https://www.gcsp.ch/global-insights/75-years-later-nuclear-weapons-still-kill#:~:text=Victims%20of%20Nuclear%20Weapon%20Testing&text=In%20the%20United%20States%2C%20which,deaths%20from%201951%20and%201973

Mediavilla, D. 2013. The collateral benefits of the atomic bomb. Web Site Materia. http://esmateria.com/2013/06/09/los-beneficios-colaterales-de-la-bomba-atomica/

Lemon, Kylie. (2018, April 16). Environmental Effects of the Atomic Bomb. sciencing.com. Retrieved from https://sciencing.com/environmental-effects-atomic-bomb-8203814.html