It was April of 2015 when Clara Schneid took a chance on an organization and went to her first meeting with Global Zero: an international non-profit that focuses on the elimination of all nuclear weapons in the world.
The moment the meeting ended, Schneid deemed herself a Global Zero activist and enthusiast.
“I learned so much so quickly,” Schneid, who serves as UO Global Zero’s Action-Core leader now, said. “I knew that this cause was something I wasn’t going to let go, that I couldn’t ignore how much of an impact nuclear weapons have had on this world because it was so obviously important.”
Similar to Schneid’s adoption of an anti-nuclear mindset, for me, it was UO Beyond War that pulled at my personal ethics and emotions, and is now the basis of my passion to also work towards a more peaceful world without nuclear weapons.
Activism is not something that every college student gets involved in or exposed to. For someone to really invest their time and efforts into something effectively, it takes finding a certain cause along with developing a deep, personal connection to it.
I propose a cause for humankind: putting an end to nuclear programs around the world. I believe just about everyone, domestically and internationally, can find a deep, personal connection with this respective cause. Nuclear weapons are the reason for so many large-scale problems in the world, including past human and environmental genocide, as well as present power struggles and financial unrest.
The whole concept of nuclear arsenal was born during the Cold War era, and it all started with the U.S. in 1942 and the Manhattan Project, according to a timeline by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.
The world’s reaction to the Manhattan Project was to, in turn, create more nuclear artilleries and challenge that power.
Now, there have been movements in the past to ban certain types of nuclear testing and in specific places, and there have been other regional treaties that completely prohibit the production of these weapons, but the issue comes from the fact that they still exist. Thousands of lethal, chemical arsenals are in storage and others are on hair-trigger alert around the world.
“Hair-triggered weapons are probably of the highest concern since they can be detonated with the push of a button,” Schneid said. “They’re super instant, which leaves so much room for accidents to occur.”
People and human error, in general, are the source of all of the world’s problems, including the potential for nuclear warfare. Schneid and I both agree that the reason as to why we haven’t reached Global Zero yet is because of humans and their obsession with power.
As of October 2015, the Arms Control Association reported that there are roughly 16,000 nuclear warheads in the world – over 90 percent of which are said to belong to either Russia or the United States.
Therefore, it is crucial that our generation works to crack down on the topic of nuclear weapons, especially with it being an election year. It is important to understand candidates’ stances on this issue and hear their justifications.
“The cost and the positive alternatives of governmental funding that these candidates would control, I think, is a strong appeal for college students, in particular, to get involved with activism for a globally ‘Zero’ world,” Schneid said.
The idea of nuclear necessity is completely archaic and the U.S., for example, is at the point where it can either invest in updating and maintaining its atomic arsenal, or it can abolish it completely.
“Eliminating nuclear weapons does not mean eliminating power, and it doesn’t mean eliminating security or a means of safety,” Schneid said. “In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Without access to nuclear weapons, terrorists and terrorist groups have a lower likelihood of doing large amounts of damage. Meanwhile, without nuclear weapons, but rather more precise and logical military plans, procedures and weaponry, we would be a much more effective power source and have a stronger defensive program.”
To learn more about the fight against the presence of nuclear weaponry, reach out to UO students involved with Global Zero and Beyond War.
The two groups are coming together for a tri-series event this spring to break the silence about nuclear weapons and look at the issue from three separate angles – politically, humanitarianly and journalistically – with a knowledgeable panel to speak on each.
Events will be on April 20, 27 and May 4 at 7:15 p.m. Locations are yet to be determined.
