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posted by martyb on Saturday October 07 2017, @08:29AM   Printer-friendly
from the we-come-in-peace dept.

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, as the Norwegian Nobel Committee warned that the risk of a nuclear conflict is greater than for a long time.

ICAN describes itself as a coalition of grassroots non-government groups in more than 100 nations. It began in Australia and was officially launched in Vienna in 2007.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-nobel-prize-peace/anti-nuclear-campaign-ican-wins-2017-nobel-peace-prize-idUSKBN1CB0XR

[Also Covered By]:
Nobel peace prize 2017: International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons wins award
2017 Nobel Peace Prize Awarded to International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
International Campaign To Abolish Nuclear Weapons Wins 2017 Nobel Peace Prize

Given the current tensions due to North Korea, this prize seems somehow apt. What do you think?


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  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by khallow on Monday October 09 2017, @02:03AM (3 children)

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Monday October 09 2017, @02:03AM (#579057) Journal
    To put this in perspective [ourworldindata.org]:

    The Absolute Number of War Deaths is Declining since 1945 The absolute number of war deaths has been declining since 1946. In some years in the early post-war era, around half a million people died in wars; in contrast, in 2007 (the last year for which I have data) the number of all war deaths was down to 22.139[sic European notation].

    The detailed numbers for 2007 also show which deaths are counted as war deaths:8

    • Number of State-Based Battle Deaths: 16773
    • Number of Non-State Battle Deaths: 1865
    • Number of One Sided Violence Deaths: 3501
    • The total sum of the above is: 22139. This is the number of all war deaths on our planet in 2007.

    There's a certain sort of ideology that gets the world very wrong. It's not left or right, but rather the idea that we are incredibly broken and every ill or evil we have or done is at immense and growing levels. While with the Syrian war, things got worse again, the above is still a remarkable achievement for a planet with 6.6 billion people on it (as of 2007). War is one of the notable evils that we have reduced substantially over the past half century and that in turn is due to nuclear weapons.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 11 2017, @10:24AM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 11 2017, @10:24AM (#580371)

    And how many deaths will there be in a nuclear war, in a world that has 9600 warheads [armscontrol.org] in military service? Last time around, 2 warheads were used, causing roughly 200,000 deaths.

    • (Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday October 11 2017, @11:42AM (1 child)

      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday October 11 2017, @11:42AM (#580400) Journal

      And how many deaths will there be in a nuclear war, in a world that has 9600 warheads [armscontrol.org] in military service? Last time around, 2 warheads were used, causing roughly 200,000 deaths.

      A lot more than 22,000 people even if only one is used on a population center. One must distinguish between potential and actual here. The tools exist to kill potentially billions of people either near instantly or over the course of several weeks. But in actuality, in a recent year, we had war deaths down to a point that probably has been rarely matched over the past few millennia.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 14 2017, @02:31PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 14 2017, @02:31PM (#582283)

        Everything that is actual was once potential. Potentially, something could go wrong. [time.com]