The cost of nuclear weapons

I don't know about you, but I've been terrified of nuclear weapons since I was a kid, during the re-ignited cold war of the '80s. Turns out that NRDC has been fighting nuclear weapons even longer, since shortly after our founding in 1970. Obviously, there's not much that could be worse for the environmental well-being of people, plants, and animals than a nuclear explosion. With Cold War two decades behind us, NRDC and others are pushing for the eventual elimination of nuclear weapons. One of our allies in this fight, Bruce Blair and his organization Global Zero, have a Website pointing out that maintaining nuclear weapons is costing the world $1 trillion over the next decade, with much of that money being spent by the United States. Also interesting is an article on disarmament that NRDC's Matt McKinzie wrote with Blair and others, which was published last fall in Foreign Affairs. As Global Zero's site mentions, the government is cutting funding for the development of clean energy technologies that could end our dependency on foreign oil while spending tons of money on perpetuating our nuclear arsenal. It's time to turn this around and get our priorities straight.