That ticking sound? It’s the nuclear threat that never went away. Grass-roots ‘Back from the Brink’ platform is gathering momentum

We welcome the April 9 editorial, “We need to start worrying about the bomb,” which credits a series of New York Times editorials on the dangers of nuclear war. At Physicians for Social Responsibility, we agree that nuclear weapons present “the most clear and present danger to humankind.” A study in the journal Nature Food in August 2022 showed a nuclear war could lead to the starvation of up to 5 billion of the 8 billion people on earth.

We broadly agree with the measures you cite, which closely resemble our grass-roots “Back from the Brink” campaign. It calls for a no-first-use policy, ending sole presidential authority to launch nuclear weapons, ending “hair-trigger alert,” canceling the plans to replace the entire arsenal with new weapons, and most important, resumption of negotiations for a multilateral, verifiable treaty for the elimination of nuclear weapons.

This platform has been endorsed by the legislatures in California, Maine, New Jersey, Oregon, and Rhode Island; numerous municipal governments around the country; and the municipal governments of 20 towns and cities in Massachusetts, including Boston, Worcester, and Springfield. It is also under consideration by the Massachusetts Legislature and in the US House of Representatives.

Your editorial wonders where the mass movement is to address this issue. We are here, and our momentum is growing.

We invite other Globe readers to join us.

A study in 2022 showed a nuclear war could lead to the starvation of up to 5 billion of the 8 billion people on earth.

DR. JOSEPH GOLD HODGKIN Cambridge

The writer, an attending hospitalist at Massachusetts General Hospital and instructor at Harvard Medical School, is cochair for nuclear disarmament for the Greater Boston chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility and a member of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War.