Don’t let technology destroy humanity.

Albert Einstein dedicated the last decade of his life to warn about the dangers of nuclear weapons and to call on countries to resolve their conflicts peacefully.

Dedicating August 29th to the fight against nuclear testing allows us to establish a direct relationship with the words of the German physicist Albert Einstein, «I don’t know what the third world war will be like, I only know that the fourth will be with stones and spears», due to the trail of human and environmental destruction that this process, which began in 1945, has generated.

In 1905, the pacifist had made known what is today considered one of the most famous formulas in history: E=mc². With it Einstein explained that a small amount of mass is equivalent to immense amounts of energy.

Hence, only a few kilotonnes of Uranium and Plutonium (radioactive substances) used in the atomic bombs were enough to create an explosion with an energy equivalent to more than 15,000 tons of TNT in the case of Hiroshima, and 21,000 tons in Nagasaki.

And although he had no direct participation in the creation of the bombs dropped on those Japanese cities on August 6th and 9th, the physicist was publicly pointed out as one of those responsible. So much so that in July 1946 the American magazine TIMES showed on its cover an illustration with the image of Einstein next to a nuclear mushroom and the formula for the equivalence between mass and energy.

But far from being «the father of the bomb», as he was called because his equation was the theoretical basis to build it, his scientific interest was quite different. That is why he wrote and sent a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1939, six years before the nuclear bombing of Japan, to warn him about the advances made by Hitler’s Germany in the development of extremely powerful bombs and the effects generated by this weaponry. I saw no other way out, although I was always a convinced pacifist,» Einstein wrote.

Contrary to Einstein’s intention, a Pandora’s box was opened that prompted the U.S. government’s involvement in nuclear research until the creation of the Manhattan Project, which led to nuclear tests and the manufacture of the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki that left more than 200,000 dead, in addition to the injuries and illnesses attributed to radiation poisoning.

With these experiences, Albert Einstein dedicated the last decade of his life to warn about the dangers of nuclear weapons and to call on countries to resolve their conflicts peacefully.

The Nobel Laureate in Physics not only stood out for his genius, but also for his pacifist, anti-racist attitude, for his criticism of militarism and above all for calling for the use of technology in favor of humanity.

«It has become terribly obvious that our technology has surpassed our humanity.» A. Einstein.

Written by Ana González.