Noah, Elaine and How Everything Could End

The concept of mutually assured destruction, or M.A.D. in short, only scratches the outermost surface of the considerations that must be made concerning nuclear

weapons and their use. M.A.D only creates an apparent security: Accidents or miscommunications can always lead to the use of nuclear weapons, even if nobody actually has the attention to start a nuclear war. This is an important reason for having to move beyond M.A.D. in order to protect the earth and its inhabitants from nuclear weapons. A second reason to reject nuclear weapons is of a more spiritual nature: Should there be any means by which one individual species – and only few individuals from it – can cause the extinction of almost all life on the earth's surface, while all other living beings are at the mercy of this?

To discuss these topics, gruesome stories of war and destruction are not necessary at all. Quite the contrary: We will follow excerpts from the lives of two young friends, Noah and Elaine – only ten years old at the beginning of their friendship – who experience adventures together while being confronted with similar topics as those relevant for the discussions concerning nuclear weapons. As children tend to love doing, they ask deep and fundamental questions about life along the way. Because of the very serious background of the stories, a short, explanatory introduction is given in italic when appropriate.