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14,629 trees/sec. Nuclear Dilemma

The U.S. spent $69.2 billion on nuclear weapons in 2025 alone. That's $3,768 per second--I planted a tree in our backyard yesterday provided through a state reforesting project. How many trees could the US plant instead? 14,629 trees/sec.

The figure is as shocking as it is banal. When President Obama accepted the Nobel Peace Prize 

some said it was for pledging a commitment to verifiable disarmament, but in exchange for the Senate ratification of New START

he consented to "modernize" with "life extension-programs" for the B-61 gravity bomb and the entire nuclear weapon triad. 

The B-61 bomb renovation is now complete, and the W-93 nuclear weapons program is well underway, according to Sarah Scoles, author of Count Down, 

o a clear violation of the 1970 Nonproliferation Treaty, the "bedrock" of nuclear disarmament infrastructure to which the U.S. is signatory.

 

[from Bruce G. Blair and Matthew A. Brown, "World Spending on Nuclear Weapons Surpasses $1 Trillion Per Decade, Global Zero Technical Report," Nuclear Weapons Cost Study, June 2011]  

We knew the spending was increasing. We didn't have any idea.

Description: Nuclear weapons spending rose to all-time high of $119 billion in 2025--a 19 percent increase from 2024. World hunger could have been ended with what was spent on nuclear weapons in the last three years.

According to "Premeditated" ICAN's June 2026 report on Nuclear Weapons Spending in 2025 the U.S. spent $69.2 billion, and Washington made the largest spending increase of $12.4 billion. China spent $13.5 billion. The UK $12.6 billion. Russia $9.5 billion. full report

7% of total U.S. military spending dedicated to nuclear weapons or 954 Billion. The US could have paid the entire budget of the UN 19 times with its nuclear weapon spending. Or saved the lives of 445 million people who were acutely food insecure, including on the brink of famine, in 2025. The median per capita income in the US was $53,768. One minute of US nuclear weapons spending in 2025 would have paid the median annual salary for 1,287,010 people.

$226,069 per minute--How many people could this provide a year of clean water and sanitation for? 2,026 people

$13.6 million per hour--How many annual median salaries could this cover? 147 salaries in the US. 

You might say, it is "troubling."

 

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