Seventy-nine years after the United States dropped nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, most of us rarely think about nuclear weapons. The oversight is understandable, but mistaken — and dangerous.

It’s understandable because while nuclear weapons are destructive and expensive, they seem like a distant risk. There are almost always more pressing or promising issues to attend to. But it’s dangerous to ignore them because an occasionally attentive public may be the main reason we’ve avoided a nuclear war thus far. Citizen movements against nuclear weapons during the Cold War helped significantly reduce nuclear risks. As global nuclear tension spikes again, we urgently need a renewed antinuclear movement.

Some dangers are glaringly obvious. Russia’s war in Ukraine continues, and Vladimir Putin periodically warns the world that Russia maintains a substantial nuclear arsenal. He’s also ordered his military to rehearse its use of tactical nuclear weapons. At the same time Israel, another nuclear nation, is fighting a lopsided war in Gaza and threatening to do whatever it takes to stop Iran from joining the nuclear club.