The main point I use as an argument against nuclear weapons is that they are against international law. This argument is irrefutable. International law permits only weapons that can be aimed at a specific, limited target, so that no nonparticipants outside the scope of these weapons are affected. Even in atomic tests, radioactive fallout is dispersed over great distances, causing terrible ravages. Just imagine what would happen in the event of an atomic war!

...It would be of immense importance if America in this hour of destiny could decide in favor of renouncing atomic weapons...The theory of peace through terrifying an opponent by greater armament can now only heighten the danger of war...

But all negotiations regarding the abolition of atomic weapons remain without success because no international opinion exists which demands this abolition...In all protests against atomic weapons...I speak of the necessity of a strong public opinion in the world.

--Dr. Albert Schweitzer

Consumed with the endless daily challenges he faced at his hospital in Africa, Albert Schweitzer, like many others, initially hesitated to become involved in nuclear weapons issues. But Norman Cousins, Albert Einstein and others prevailed upon him to review basic facts about nuclear explosions and their effects on people and the environment. What Schweitzer learned horrified him, and he dedicated the last decade of his life to opposing nuclear weapons as utterly immoral and unacceptable threats to human populations, and ultimately to the survival of humanity itself.

While many people today seem most concerned about the possibility that terrorists or so-called rogue states might possess and one day use nuclear weapons, Schweitzer always insisted that in ethics and in life generally Example is not the main thing in influencing others, it is the only thing. He therefore insisted that the only realistic solution to the dangers posed by nuclear weapons is the complete, verifiable, and enforceable elimination of nuclear weapons by every nation.

Schweitzer also believed that nuclear abolition would never happen if it was left in the hands of governments. Only a massive outpouring of public revulsion and protest against the very existence of these genocidal instruments of mass death could force governments to change. Just such an outcry was sparked by Dr. Schweitzer's historic appeal to the people of the world over Radio Oslo in April 1957 to mobilize in opposition to the atmospheric nuclear test explosions that were then poisoning the planet, with radioactive isotopes from nuclear fallout  found in the baby teeth of children in places as far from each other as the U.S. and Scandinavia.

International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) was founded by U.S. and Soviet physicians in 1980 to carry on Dr. Schweitzer's anti-nuclear work at the height of the Cold War. By 1985, IPPNW was honored with the Nobel Peace Prize. In the Nobel Committee's statement in presenting the Peace Prize to IPPNW, Committee Chair Egil Aarvik emphasized that:

Through this year's award of the Peace Prize, the Norwegian Nobel Committee wishes to...direct attention to the way in which the problem of disarmament is a concern, not only of politicians, but also of the general public in all countries.

These physicians have told us what will happen if these weapons were to be used. We know now about the "atomic winter" with its destruction of the biosphere and of all conditions necessary for life. The physicians have also shown the absence of any escape route, and that there is no feasible protection available against such an atomic catastrophe. Home defence and medical services would inevitably collapse; it would be impossible to help the injured and the dying, and survivors would be subjected to the murderous long term consequences.

Another aspect of this matter is that the resources which are today used in the development of new weapons could have been used to help the millions of people who die of hunger and lack of adequate health care. What can be more true to the spirit of the Hippocratic Oath than this campaign for new priorities in the use of the available resources, from military ends to health and other development causes?

Possibly, the former laureate, Alva Myrdal, was correct in believing that all we can hope for now is a stronger mobilization of public opposition and a corresponding strengthening of pressure on the political authorities. ...It is obvious that, if such a public opposition is to have real value as a peace inducing force, it has to be built up independently of ideological systems, political viewpoints or geographical divisions. It has to be universal. ...

There is one common interest which will assert itself over all others: the will to survive...The feeling for this common interest is now beginning to be so strong that a watchword seems to be evolving: People of all lands who wish to survive, unite!

...It is permissible to wonder whether we don't already know enough about the terrible consequences of a nuclear war. The answer is, of course, that we know more than enough. While visiting the Peace Museum which the Japanese have erected on the spot where the first atomic bomb fell forty years ago, however, I came across the following epitaph: "We know 100 times more than we need to know. What we lack is the ability to experience and to be moved by what we know, what we understand and what we see and believe".

One can see that this epitaph touches the heart of the matter. A theoretic knowledge of the megaton-bomb's explosive power is not enough. It isn't enough to be frightened to sleeplessness by fiction films on the atomic Ragnarock. The question is: What shall we do about it? Do we have the ability to begin to act? Is it possible to force a change of direction? This is the question which has become our time's "to be or not to be".

Among all the complications which abound in our world, there remains one simple fact: we have the choice between living together or ceasing to live at all. Irrespective of what we call ourselves or to which political philosophy we subscribe, it is this reality which has to be the starting point for our thoughts and actions, that is, if we want to survive...

Mankind in all countries is united in that hope.

While there were great hopes when the Cold War ended that the nuclear weapons era would end as well, today more countries than ever possess nuclear weapons, with additional states clearly seeking to develop them.  Soon the progression of nuclear proliferation may become irreversible, and the eventual use of nuclear weapons inevitable.

The work of IPPNW and other non-governmental organizations throughout the world is thus more crucial than ever, mobilizing young people and others of all ages to reject the insistence by today's nuclear weapons states that their continued possession of nuclear weapons is morally and politically acceptable.    
To learn more about the dangers of nuclear weapons, and how to become involved in the global campaign to abolish them, please visit the following sites:
International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War is launching ICAN (International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear weapons), a major global grassroots nuclear abolition initiative, in early 2007, in coordination with the Reverence for Life, Music for Life initiative.  ICAN aims at building global support for the Model Nuclear Weapons Convention, a proposed global treaty designed to achieve  the permanent, verifiable, and enforceable abolition of nuclear weapons by the year 2020.

Abolition 2000 and Abolition Now involve more than 2,000 nongovernmental organizations in nearly 100 countries working for the abolition of nuclear weapons.
The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation initiates and supports worldwide efforts to abolish nuclear weapons, to strengthen international law and institutions, and to inspire and empower a new generation of peace leaders.

Mayors for Peace is an initiative founded in 1982 by Tadatoshi Akiba, Mayor of Hiroshima, calling on mayors of cities throughout the world to protest of the threat to their cities that nuclear weapons pose.  To date over 1,400 mayors in cities in over 100 countries have signed on, and many of their voices are now united in a call through the 2020/Vision Campaign to abolish nuclear weapons by the year 2020.  In June 2004 the US Conference of Mayors officially joined this initiative, calling for nuclear weapons states to commence negotiations on prohibition and elimination of nuclear weapons and pledging that the U.S. Conference of Mayors shall remain engaged this matter until our cities are no longer under the threat of nuclear devastation.

The Nuclear Threat Initiative, co-chaired by Ted Turner and former U.S Senator Sam Nunn, with support from Warren Buffett and others, works to reduce the global threats from nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons.