Podcast: Winter-Safe Deterrence
Our “BlueSciCon” podcast for March features a conversation with Dr. Seth Baum of the Global Catastrophic Risk Institute and Kathryn McLaughlin of Biosecu.re about the concept of “Winter-Safe Deterrence“.
The stockpiles of nuclear weapons held by nations today hold the power to destroy civilization several times over, and the risk of nuclear winter–a catastrophic reduction in global temperatures due to soot from nuclear war–gives us reason to question whether we should maintain such massive stockpiles at all. Yet deterrence provides the strongest motivation to keep these dangerous weapons, and a nation’s security today is indeed linked in its deterrence abilities. In this conversation, Dr. Seth Baum and Kathryn McLaughlin discuss the possibilities and risks of using alternative stockpiles–such as non-contagious biological weapons–to achieve “winter-safe” deterrence.