There's been a lot of coverage in the US news lately regarding the limiting of nuclear arms. At the forefront has been President Obama calling for the limiting of the construction of nuclear arms, asking other countries to only pursue peaceful nuclear technology, and vetoing the construction of new nuclear arms in the United States.


I'd like to hear everyone's opinion. It'd be great if apollo could start things off with the conservative point of view so ducky can swoop in with the liberal and I can watch as the madness unfolds.

i'll come with the norwegian point of this
as i see it this is a good thing, america have for a long time told other countries to disarm their nuclear weapons while continuing to create more and more themselves.

from my view this will give america more credibility, and i would guess there will be long term positive effect, but ony time will tell

I am for this. For 2 reason:
1. Countries always complain about lack of energy, while they use all their high grade radioactive materials(ie, plutonium, uranium, etc) for making big ole' bombs, instead of nuclear power plants. Now, for those who don't know how these plants work, I'll explain. First you start off with a big ole pool of clear, fresh water. Than, you take your materials(nuclear stuff, uranium I believe) and toss it in some tubes. You put those tubes in the water. The protons from said materials release heat, heating the water up to boiling, which in turn spins turbines and produces electricity. Same principle as fossil fuels, but the only bad material released into the ATMOSPHERE is steam. That's leaves all the nice irradiated leftovers though. If I remember it correctly anyways, that's how it worked. Steam.
2. Nasty ole' wars. We're human beings. We love to kill each other. For money. For land. For whatever. We're gonna kill each other. NOW, when we do kill each other, I'd prefer it to be the old fashioned way, and that we not destroy our entire planet using silly bombs. So yeah, there we go.

where i come from (australia) liberal is right wing... this is the same pretty much everywhere BUT USA...

im somewhat indifferent, the nuclear capabilities of the US are pretty much untouched. i can see that the intention is good, clearing up nukes to prevent them falling into the hands of terrorists, but i dont see it really helping anyone

in USA both the democrats and the conservatives criticized him for 1. being too soft in his approach. 2. doing something.

USA doesnt really need nukes, their conventional armoury is overkill already to any opposing nation.

im more worried about stronghead france that is pulling another copenhagen (we wont do anything until the big people do something first).

im just waiting because within 2 years Israel/USA/both will launch an air raid on Iran for its ongoing (Want to be allies? Sometimes I like to pretend I am a princess riding a pony..) stubborness in pursuing nukes.

then again, fallout was a fun game <3

15 nukes can kill this planet, why would we need any more?

well you need the smaller tactical nukes... blowing yourself up in the process of blowing them up is unwanted, so more lower payload nukes are wanted.

Ducky, if 5 nukes explode at the same position the atmosphere will be so severely damage that we can kiss our planet goodbye.

15 nukes are sufficient. You shouldn't WANT to wage a nuke war as even a country as Korea can destroy this planet. Just the ability to threaten with them is wanted

purely hypothetical.

Ozone would instantly begin replenishing. so... a 80% higher rate of cancer for a couple years... thats not the end of the world. and IMO, the earth has had far crappier atmospheres in the past when there were lifeforms that had to deal with it

you cant just "blow up" a planet, most volcanoes out compete the force created by nukes.

korea cant destroy this planet, setting off nukes in limestone rich areas, volcanoes, ice sheets while hitting the atmosphere repeatedly would kill off most life, but things will begin anew within a couple hundred years, extinction events are not unheard of and with REALLY SHINY bomb shelters, its unlikely humans will go out with the asploding explosions.

I think I know what hes talking about. I read an article in National Geographic I think about it.

Not sure if it was 15 however. I believe it was closer to 100 nukes at once sending enough dust into the atmosphere to create another ice age. I dunno. Its very vague now. Been a few years.