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Comment and Society

This is how to avoid annihilating ourselves in a nuclear war

We have been lucky to dodge nuclear Armageddon so far, but we can't keep trusting to fortune. If we don't want to wipe ourselves out, here's what we need do next, says Mark Lynas

By Mark Lynas

21 May 2025

New Scientist. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

Elaine Knox

The good news is that we might be about to solve the Fermi paradox. Many have long suspected that the reason why there don’t seem to be millions of talkative aliens out there in space is that, when an intelligent civilisation develops the technology to enable interstellar communication, it also develops weapons that enable it to quickly destroy itself.

So far, we are matching this trajectory. We have sent probes beyond the solar system – and vast quantities of electronic data fizzing in all directions at the speed of light – but we have also got thousands of thermonuclear weapons…

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