Humanity has moved closer to doomsday than ever before. Well, at least since 1947, when the iconic Doomsday Clock first began ticking.
On Thursday, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ Science and Security Board moved the Doomsday Clock from two minutes to midnight to 100 seconds to midnight. According to the organization, the time on the Doomsday Clock is now being expressed in seconds, rather than minutes, in an effort to underscore the need for action.
“We are now expressing how close the world is to catastrophe in seconds – not hours, or even minutes,” said Rachel Bronson, president and CEO of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. “It is the closest to Doomsday we have ever been in the history of the Doomsday Clock.
“We now face a true emergency – an absolutely unacceptable state of world affairs that has eliminated any margin for error or further delay.”
The Doomsday Clock has now moved closer to midnight in three of the last four years. While the Doomsday Clock did not move in 2019, its minute hand was set forward in 2018 by 30 seconds, to two minutes before midnight.
“Humanity continues to face two simultaneous existential dangers—nuclear war and climate change—that are compounded by a threat multiplier, cyber-enabled information warfare, that undercuts society’s ability to respond,” the organization said Thursday. “The international security situation is dire, not just because these threats exist, but because world leaders have allowed the international political infrastructure for managing them to erode.”
But the scientists also offered specific courses of action to stop the pending doom, including reinstating nuclear arms talks between the U.S. and Russia; begin talks on cyber warfare, missile defense and the militarization of space; a renewed commitment to the Paris climate agreement and the Iran nuclear deal; and undertake international penalties over the misuse of science.
For the first time, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists was joined in making the Doomsday Clock change by members of The Elders, a group founded by Nelson Mandela in 2007 of global leaders working for peace and human rights.
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