It’s been a while since I banged on about the growing threat from what has become the ever-present reality of nuclear weapons. I imagine for most of us nuclear weapons have been around all our lives and no one has dropped one yet, so they probably never will. You should be able to spot the problems with that logic.

Or perhaps it is simply another one of those issues that are simply WAY TOO BIG for us, after all what can we do? The answer is, of course, not much, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do that.

It’s worth remembering that nuclear weapons change the reality in conventional warfare. The only reason there aren’t soldiers from other national armies fighting in Ukraine is because Russia has nuclear weapons. And that is probably the same reason why no other army is going to try and intervene against Israel, because although they’ve never admitted it, they too have nuclear weapons.

It’s why no one is going to invade North Korea and therefore why South Korea has US nukes covering it, but may still get their own. And that’s almost certainly the reasoning for Iran a state on the threshold of attaining nuclear weapons.

But not only are we living in a world where the number of nuclear nations is going up, we are also living in a world where the number of nuclear weapons is going up. That’s right, up not down.

China has increased the size of its nuclear arsenal which I expect it hopes will give it sufficient cover in any Taiwan related endeavour. But that decision has significant knock on effects. The US will have to determine its capacity against Russia AND China. But India which also sees China as a threat and rival, may also want to increase its stockpile. But Pakistan seeing India grow their weaponry is unlikely to stay still. All this is why The Economist reckons we are seeing the beginning of a new nuclear arms race.

But there are other risks too and not just from the occasional missing bomb. Other nations use war somewhere else as an opportunity for their own military adventures knowing people are distracted. That makes war more likely not less likely. Not good.

And if you get that end of the world feeling, for most of us prepping would be entirely useless. Do you know how to grow your own food, make electricity, build a house, find clean water? Nope, didn’t think so.