Facing the risk of nuclear war in the 21st century | Carl Robichaud | EA Global: Virtual 2020

Nuclear weapons pose a grave threat to civilization. Public awareness of this threat has faded, but the weapons have not gone away. In fact, recent technological and geopolitical trends make nuclear war more likely than it has been in decades. Carl Robichaud discusses these developments and assesses the options for effective altruists seeking to contribute to nuclear risk reduction.

As program officer in International Peace and Security at the Carnegie Corporation of New York, Carl manages a portfolio of grants to strengthen nuclear security. In this capacity, he heads the Corporation’s work on strengthening nuclear governance and investing in the next generation of nuclear experts.

View Carl's slides here:

[Minutemaninflight]

Well I live in the great lakes region of Ontario just north of Toronto I can't believe a lot of millennials think that if there was a nuclear war that nothing would happen here and everything would be just fine.I waste no time tuning them into the reality of what will really happen the look on their faces is priceless. First I explain the fallout from the minuteman missile fields alone would be deadly. And then when I explain that Ontario would most definitely get hit by 7 or 8 warheads they are almost speechless. Of course they ask but where? So I explain that Toronto, Ottawa, Windsor, base Borden, 22 squadron at north bay, the 3 nuclear power plants and probably a couple in the Windsor Detroit area. But why they ask ? So I also have to explain that after being hit we would not be able to help the Americans and we are also part of NATO some of the young people just don't get it.

[Wardoon]

I am seeing more and more Youtube videos on x-risks of late. May be our digital overlords are educating me about this issue!🙂

Algorithms to live by.

[ts]

Since the nuclear power countries aren't voluntarily disarming, do we need a transition to a world government that will do it for us, or at least a stronger United Nations that can? I don't like the idea of big government, but how do we move the human race 100 or 200 years into the future? I doubt nuclear deterrence will work for another 100 years, but I hope I'm wrong. Leaders aren't immune from irrational thinking under quick time pressure. Is it possible that a non state actor or terrorist group gets a hold of a nuke financed through cybercrime, or that extremely unlikely? This is just something to think about. I don't know what the answers are.

[osvaldocampagne]

For some reason I feel we're closer than Ever to nuclear war .. like this virus is just distracting us from.... something..

Idk... then again I have been home w too much time lately lol