By Paul Hellweg:
Polls show that the biggest issues for U.S. voters in 2026 are the economy and cost of living. We need to reconsider. As a working father, I understand the need for affordable food, housing, and medical care, but I also understand those concerns become meaningless if my family and I have been reduced to charred cinders.
The midterms this year will either increase or decrease our children’s chance to have a future. Humanity is currently facing three existential threats, all of which are being exacerbated by the current White House administration.
Those are the folks who deny that global climate change is real, even as the world either burns or is pounded by catastrophic storms. Contrary to Trump’s claims, there is scientific consensus that the Earth is warming as a result of human activity, that this warming has already significantly impacted the environment in disastrous ways, and that more warming will result in worsening impacts.
Then we have the threat of nuclear war. Some historians think World War III has already started, and others think we’re on the verge. If there is a WW III, the risk of nuclear annihilation becomes all too real. The doomsday clock is currently set at a sobering 85 seconds to midnight, the closest the Clock has ever been to midnight in its history. And we don’t need a world war to bring about Armageddon.
As Annie Jacobsen makes clear in her best-selling book, Nuclear War, irrational action by a rogue state could trigger an extinction-level nuclear exchange. President Trump’s war on Iran has probably convinced such countries they need nuclear weapons to discourage potential attackers.
There’s worse. Noble laureate Geoffery Hinton (the “godfather” of AI) began warning us years ago that AI posed a threat to humanity’s survival, but it wasn’t until last month that people started paying attention (after a whistleblower warned that AI could result in the extermination of humanity by 2030). There is evidence that attempts have already been made to use AI to create biological weapons.
The real problem isn’t bad actors misusing AI. The end will come when a self-improving superintelligence perceives humans as a threat to its existence. Science fiction? No. As you read this, AI companies are racing against each other to be the first to create that very same self-improving superintelligence despite their leaders sounding the alarm.
Taking into account the current wars and political instability in the Middle East, the risk of nuclear annihilation appears to be the immediate threat. But in the long run, the dangers inherent in AI are more alarming than those of either climate change or nuclear weapons, partially because nuclear holocaust is an option AI could use to get rid of us. Clearly regulation is needed. No other threat poses this level of danger, but what is the current administration doing?
That’s right – nothing, despite the fact that 81% of Americans think the government should regulate AI. There are even some people (I’m one) who believe all AI should be banned. Yes, all.
As bleak as all the above sounds, I believe there is still hope. But any chance of a sustainable future depends upon the election of politicians who place more value on the public good than on personal wealth and power. On November 3rd, you’ll have the opportunity to help elect people who will support not only renewable energy, but also the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and the regulation or banning of AI.
All of us – not just the politicians — need to commit ourselves to the saving of humanity. To paraphrase Plato, the ideal society is one in which everyone best does what they best do. You know yourself.
What do you do best? Write? Send a letter to the editor of your local newspaper. Chat? Get on social media and start urging friends to help. Socialize? Join an action group or go on a protest march. Sit around the house and do nothing? As a minimum, get out on November 3rd and vote for folks who care about humanity’s future.
If you do absolutely nothing, you will have no right to feel like an innocent victim when the horizon lights up with nuclear detonations. Do something to help.
I have a nine-year old daughter, and my sanity depends upon believing it’s still possible to build a sustainable future for all our children. I believe we can if we all pitch in, but we have to do it now. The alternative is species suicide.
Paul Hellweg is a freelance writer and poet. Samples of his writing can be seen at www.PaulHellweg.com and www.VietnamWarPoetry.com