Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, August 14, 2023
Posted: 14th August 2023
August 14, 2023
Members of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium protest outside the Trinity test site. Credit: Tina Cordova.
NUCLEAR RISK
After the fallout: Oppenheimer’s Trinity test has US civilians seeking compensation today
Decades later, the impacts of the first nuclear weapon test are still felt by Downwinders. “We don’t ask if we’re going to get cancer, we ask when it’s going to be our turn,” says Tina Cordova, co-founder of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium. Watch now.
CLIMATE CHANGE
Kids and families: the latest targets of climate denialism propaganda
Climate skepticism has been consistently debunked by scientists, but misinformation from the oil and gas industry has continued to seek new audiences—including kids, reports Keerti Gopal of Inside Climate News. Read more.
DISRUPTIVE TECHNOLOGIES
War is messy. AI can’t handle it.
As AI becomes part of military decision-making, it’s important to be wary of the pristine ideas of how technology can transform conflict, write two security experts. Read more.
CLIMATE CHANGE
Sudan’s conflict escalates, endangering millions
With more than 3.5 million people displaced, 80 percent of hospitals shut down, and rampant war crimes, how will Sudan combat the increasing harm from climate change? Bulletin associate multimedia editor Erik English weighs in. Read more.
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NUCLEAR RISK
What Oppenheimer can teach today’s scientists
Scientists cannot turn back to an idyllic scientific Garden of Eden where research is pure and unencumbered with consequences for life and death decisions, says political scientist Charles D. Ferguson. “They need to take part in the public arena.” Read more.
IN THE NEWS
After Oppenheimer debut, Hyde Parkers carry on Hiroshima remembrance
In this Hyde Park Herald article, writer Max Blaisdell recounts the July 29 Bulletin screening of Oppenheimer that was followed by a discussion with the Bulletin’s President and CEO and other nuclear experts. Read more.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Climate change doesn’t usually start the fires; but it intensifies them, increasing the area they burn and making them much more dangerous.”
— Katharine Hayhoe, the chief scientist at the Nature Conservancy, “Devastating Hawaii fires made ‘much more dangerous’ by climate change,” The Guardian
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