Persuasive Essay: Nuclear Weapons

Nuclear weapons have the power to wipe out an entire place and the organisms within it,

so should they be tested regularly and used in war? They are most commonly associated with the

devastation of whole cities, like Hiroshima, and a lot of people fear nuclear weapons because of

that. Some countries, including the United States, have the power to blow up the whole planet

more than once. When is it too much? It also shows that owning nuclear weapons is more of an

egotistical stand point, and that countries are power hungry for world domination. This is

dangerous. I believe that nuclear weapons should not be tested or used in war because owning a

single nuclear weapon has many risk factors and can have several different impacts on the

environment that it is tested in. Some people believe that by using or threatening to use nuclear

weapons, they could be saving the world by deterring major wars from breaking out, but this is

not true.

Nuclear weapons are full of risks. They reek of radiation. The whole industry emits an

unfathomable amount of low level radiation, and with that comes the harm of people. The

radioactive waste can hide itself in clothes, tools, and different materials that people in the

industry use. Exposure to radiation will lead to disability and cancers, and the effect can

continue for decades (Green Garage). The cost of nuclear weapons alone is insane. The cost

of each deployed land-based nuclear weapon would be roughly $85 million (Gronlund). This

can negatively affect the treasury and bring on political criticism. Lastly, who is to say that a

country would not blow up the whole world if angered?

Nuclear weapons also effect the environment they are used in, in many different ways.

Radiation and fallout continue to torment the land years after the bomb has exploded. Thermal
radiation follows the use of these weapons and can cause massive firestorms that can destroy a

lot of extra land (Occupy Theory). Nuclear testing sites have to be put in the middle of nowhere

because of the environmental change the weapon can cause. It is so bad in fact that a whole idea

of radioactive creatures living underwater spawned from the testing site on Bikini Island. This

idea turned into the television show Sponge Bob Square Pants. The show was based on what the

environment was going through while the nuclear weapons were being tested. Granted, Sponge

Bob Square Pants is a kids TV show, but people often make jokes about things that they are

scared of. Hiroshima and Nagasaki are two examples of how destroyed and desolate an

environment becomes after the dropping of the bomb because the bomb was dropped in 1945,

and the two cities are still unable to safely allow humans to reside in the environment.

Some people believe that by using or threatening to use nuclear weapons, they could be

saving the world by deterring major wars from breaking out, but this is not true. In this day and

age, there are many morons and dangerous people who have control over some sort of nuclear

weapon. Since so many people have nuclear bombs, the M.A.D. policy comes into play.

M.A.D. stands for Mutually Assured Destruction, and it means that, for example, if the United

States were to send a nuke to Russia, there would immediately be one coming our way from

Russia. Owning nuclear weapons does not make the country more powerful, it makes the leader

more power hungry.

Nuclear weapons should not be tested or used in war because owning a single nuclear

weapon has many risk factors and can have several different impacts on the environment that it is

tested in. Some people believe that by using or threatening to use nuclear weapons, they could

be saving the world by deterring major wars from breaking out, but this is not true. Nuclear

weapons are a danger to us and our environment. I suggest that everyone gets rid of their nuclear
weapons because we only have one Earth, and it should not be ruined so some country can assert

dominance over another.

 Works Cited

Green Garage. Green Garage. 2015. Web. 21 May 2017.

Gronlund. Union of Concerned Scientists. November 2013. Web. 21 May 2017.

Occupy Theory. Occupy Theory. 2 February 2015. Web. 21 May 2017.