“A New Arms Race. On the growing threat of nuclear war.”

This is from Commonweal, a Catholic publication. The author is 1,000% right. At the so called Trump-Biden debate fiasco, Biden said "Climate change is the #1 existential threat". Ugh wrongo. Both parties are terrible on this (Military Industrial Complex!). All it takes is one accident, or one crazy man (and there are plenty of them around).

It's a short article; hit the link for the whole piece.

In June, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) reported that global spending on nuclear weapons surpassed $90 billion in 2023, a 13 percent jump from the previous year and a new all-time high. The United States is driving this spike, spending $51.5 billion in 2023, or approximately $98,000 per minute, on its nuclear arsenal and infrastructure. This total is more than eight times the combined spending of eight other nuclear-armed countries, including China and Russia. Over the past five years, since ICAN began its research, the United States has increased its spending by 45 percent. …

Under the pretext of “modernizing” its nuclear triad, the United States is running a new arms race, stockpiling more nuclear weapons than at any time since the Cold War ended. In 2015, Barack Obama initiated a ten-year, trillion-dollar program to upgrade the country’s nuclear arsenal and delivery capabilities. Though the Trump administration abandoned most other Obama-era initiatives, it continued this particular program … The United States spends approximately $98,000 per minute on its nuclear arsenal and infrastructure.

… Meanwhile, China has increased its nuclear arsenal from 400 to 500 warheads and is on pace to have 1,500 warheads by 2035. In May, Russia deployed tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus in response to promises from NATO countries to furnish Ukraine with new weapons, including long-range missiles. Belarusian president Aleksandr Lukashenko, a key ally of Vladimir Putin, warned of a nuclear apocalypse if Russia continues to be pressured by the West. … 

In January, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists reset its famous Doomsday Clock to ninety seconds to midnight, the closest the clock has ever been to nuclear armageddon. It is time for this issue to take its rightful place at the center of our election-year debates about foreign policy.