1,373 deployed nuclear weapons deployed. 3,800 more in storage.

This terrifyingly precarious situation is the direct result of four years of shredding key international nuclear treaties that opened the possibility of a new arms race. And let’s be clear: it wasn’t just Trump. Congress poured fuel on the fire again and again, rubber stamping BILLION dollar funding increases to maintain and expand the already-massive U.S. nuclear arsenal across subs, bombers, and land-based missiles.

Things are bleak, but there are signs that we can turn it around. President Biden is staffing the administration with officials that agree this status quo is dangerous. Nuclear weapons evangelists are running scared. And the United States and Russia are working to extend the New START Treaty.

Positive change is becoming possible, and that is thanks to YOU, Antonio. Even when we were in the wilderness, you sent emails, made calls, signed petitions, and gave what you could to support an end to nuclear weapons. But we’re not out of the woods. 

In this precarious moment, the Win Without War team is furiously working to build support on the Hill, in the White House, and from the grassroots to end this dangerous and risky downward spiral. We’ve got to get on the path to a nuclear weapons-free future — and we need your support if we're going to succeed.

Over the last four years, Trump and Congress accelerated a new nuclear arms race — funding ever more destabilizing nuclear weapons and expanding their means of production. Current estimates are that the United States will spend $2 TRILLION on the nuclear arsenal in the coming decades.

Security has got to mean more than guns and bombs. If we can curtail out of control nuclear spending, we can imagine the world we want to see: HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS of dollars for pandemic relief to support struggling families, healthcare for all, an education system that works, and actual meaningful efforts to tackle climate change — and that’s where we come in. 

Our policy and legislative team is working furiously to ensure that the Biden administration and Congress take immediate steps to stop this incredibly dangerous and risky downward nuclear spiral. Doing that requires steadfast dedication on top of the urgent events we’re forced to respond to — and that comes at a cost‚ so I’m asking.

Just this week, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists set the Doomsday Clock at 100 seconds to midnight — as close to midnight as ever. Because the reality is that right now “national governments and international organizations are unprepared to manage the truly civilization-ending threats of nuclear weapons and climate change.”

It’s a scary situation, but nuclear annihilation is not a foregone conclusion. Not if we keep working hard.

Thank you for working for peace,

Annika, Shayna, Kate, and the Win Without War team