On July 16 75 years ago the first atom bomb was detonated in the New Mexico desert. Just 21 and 24 days, respectively, later, the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were obliterated, causing an estimated 210,000 deaths immediately, and countless more since.

Einstein said: “With the nuclear age, everything changes, except the way men think”. The years since have proved over and over again how right he was.

In January 1946, the UN General Assembly's first resolution called for a total ban on this horrendous new example of mankind's self-destructive tendencies. Rather than implementing the resolution the United States and the Soviet Union embarked on a nuclear arms race which escalated until it reached the monstrous total of 70,000 warheads – a million Hiroshimas – in the 1980s. Today there are still about 15,000 warheads – enough to destroy the whole of civilisation many times over.

The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), signed in 1968 and in force in 1970, committed the then five nuclear weapon powers, the US, the Soviet Union, the UK, France and China “... to pursue negotiations in good faith … and to nuclear disarmament, ... “Such negotiations have never taken place, and the arms race has continued to this day. In response to this failure, the UN General Assembly in July 2017 agreed by a majority of 122 to one, with one abstention, on a treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons, leading towards their total abolition. But the nuclear weapon powers still refuse to accept this treaty.

In January this year the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists moved the hands of its metaphorical “Doomsday Clock” forward to 100 seconds to midnight, the nearest it has ever been to Armageddon, with all nine nuclear weapon powers upgrading their nuclear arsenals, increased tensions, plus the climate crisis. Add the current and future pandemics, and all the other major problems the human race is faced with, and its future looks bleak.

To change that prognosis, and belie Einstein's gloom, the world must come together in the common cause of securing humanity's future. With nationalist leaders such as Trump, Putin, Xi Jinping, Johnson et al, that is not likely. It is up to the ordinary people to demand better of their leaders – or get new, better, leaders.

Frank Jackson

Former Co-chair, World Disarmament Campaign