The United Nations said that the world is teetering on the precipice of nuclear war, and all it will take is “one miscalculation” on even a small scale. The world is at the greatest risk of “nuclear annihilation” since the Cold War according to the UN.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned: “Today, humanity is just one misunderstanding, one miscalculation away from nuclear annihilation,” Guterres said on Monday at the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) review conference in New York. He urged the world’s nations to “put humanity on a new path toward a world free of nuclear weapons.”

The UN chief claimed that conflicts around the globe, human rights violations (which the existence of government itself is a human rights violation), the climate crisis, and the Covid-19 pandemic “have put our world under greater stress than it has faced in our lifetimes.” Risks of nuclear warfare are at the highest level since the height of the Cold War, he added according to a report by RT. 

“Humanity is in danger of forgetting the lessons forged in the terrifying fires of Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” Guterres said. “Geopolitical tensions are reaching new heights. Competition is trumping cooperation and collaboration. Mistrust has replaced dialogue, and disunity has replaced disarmament.”

The NPT should be strengthened to “make it fit for the worrying world around us,” the secretary-general said, citing the Russia-Ukraine conflict and tensions in the Middle East and on the Korean Peninsula. “Almost  13,000 nuclear weapons are now being held in arsenals around the world. All this at a time when the risks of proliferation are growing and guardrails to prevent escalation are weakening.”

The US, the only country ever to have deployed a nuclear bomb in war, reportedly spent $44.2 billion on such weaponry in 2021, exceeding the $38.2 billion spent by the eight other nuclear-armed nations combined. China ranked second in nuclear spending, at $11.7 billion, while Russia was number three at $8.6 billion.

“For more than 50 years, the NPT has made our world safer and more prosperous, and the treaty is never more important than in times of crisis,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Monday. “The United States stands ready to work with all our partners to ensure a safer world for everyone.” –RT

This could be just fear-mongering but there is speculation that recent events could lead to a nuclear attack. New York City is even warning its population to be prepared for radiation fallout. The city also suggested packing “to go” bags with items such as toys more recently.