January 25, 2022
Eli Horton, and Suria Vanrajah
The following was originally published at the Youth 4 Disarmament Initiative.
As students in our twenties working in the nuclear non-proliferation field, we’re well aware that only a handful of our peers in “Generation Z” have a solid understanding of the issues that we’re addressing. While great resources on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation are available to those who seek them out, our field could be doing more to inspire young people to pursue these vital causes to secure a peaceful future.
Participants showing paper cranes they made.
We felt pride and enormous gratitude when tens of thousands of our peers recently gathered in Glasgow, Scotland, to demand a meaningful response to the climate crisis. In doing so, they showed how Generation Z can translate our visions for a better world into concrete demands and encouragement of our political leaders.
Our response to the danger of more than 13,000 nuclear weapons is of equal stakes for our planet and all life upon it, but people in our generation are not yet tackling nuclear arms with the same organization and urgency.
Some recent initiatives, like #Youth4Disarmament and the Seoul Youth Declaration for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation, are beginning to highlight why reining in nuclear weapons is essential to making our societies more peaceful, sustainable and equitable. Doing more to show how those goals are interlinked can bring support for nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation even further into the mainstream.
By drawing on the strategies and tactics of the climate movement, we can sharpen our collective vision of a nuclear-weapon-free future and nurture a larger, younger and more inclusive community of advocates.
Continue reading at the Youth 4 Disarmament Initiative.
