Open letter published in Daily Telegraph, 15 July 2016

An open letter from a group of British scientists and engineers calling for the cancellation of the Trident successor programme and the adoption of nuclear disarmament policies to mitigate global security and climate risks.

• The signatories argue that the UK should abandon its current policy of modernising Trident and instead join over 130 nations in the UN Open Ended Working Group to support a treaty banning nuclear weapons.
• The letter warns that a single Trident submarine possesses enough firepower to cause at least 10 million casualties and trigger a 'nuclear winter', described as global climate disruption capable of causing famine for 2 billion people.
• The authors call for the cancellation of the Trident 'successor' programme, citing a lifetime cost estimate of approximately £200 billion and increasing vulnerability to conventional attacks due to advancements in anti-submarine warfare and underwater drone technology.
• The signatories highlight the risks of technical error and cyber-security threats, urging the UK to influence the US and Russian governments to remove 1,800 nuclear weapons from 'high-alert' status.

APA

Atiyah, S. M., Barnham, K., Butterfield, R., Crowcroft, J., Davis, A. C., Finney, J., Hall, D., Hawking, S., Higgs, P., Nelson, J., Nye, J., Paulson, L., Powrie, W., Rose, S., Parkinson, S., & Webber, P. (2016). Open letter published in Daily Telegraph, 15 July 2016. Scientists for Global Responsibility. https://www.sgr.org.uk/resources/scientists-letter-urging-mps-vote-against-trident-renewal

Chicago

Atiyah, Sir Michael, Keith Barnham, Roy Butterfield, Jon Crowcroft, Anne Christine Davis, John Finney, Denis Hall, et al. Open letter published in Daily Telegraph, 15 July 2016. Scientists for Global Responsibility, 2016. https://www.sgr.org.uk/resources/scientists-letter-urging-mps-vote-against-trident-renewal.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=Atiyah |first1=Sir Michael |last2=Barnham |first2=Keith |last3=Butterfield |first3=Roy |last4=Crowcroft |first4=Jon |last5=Davis |first5=Anne Christine |last6=Finney |first6=John |last7=Hall |first7=Denis |last8=Hawking |first8=Stephen |last9=Higgs |first9=Peter |display-authors=etal |title=Open letter published in Daily Telegraph, 15 July 2016 |publisher=Scientists for Global Responsibility |date=15 July 2016 |url=https://www.sgr.org.uk/resources/scientists-letter-urging-mps-vote-against-trident-renewal |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{atiyah2016open, author = {Atiyah, Sir Michael and Barnham, Keith and Butterfield, Roy and Crowcroft, Jon and Davis, Anne Christine and Finney, John and Hall, Denis and Hawking, Stephen and Higgs, Peter and Nelson, Jenny and Nye, John and Paulson, Lawrence and Powrie, William and Rose, Steven and Parkinson, Stuart and Webber, Philip}, title = {{Open letter published in Daily Telegraph, 15 July 2016}}, publisher = {Scientists for Global Responsibility}, year = {2016}, month = jul, url = {https://www.sgr.org.uk/resources/scientists-letter-urging-mps-vote-against-trident-renewal}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }