Doomsday Clock Moves Closer to Apocalypse Midnight; Now Just 3 Minutes Left
The Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, a group founded in 1945 by University of Chicago scientists who helped develop the first atomic weapons in the Manhattan Project, warned last week that the world has moved much closer to an apocalypse.
"Today, more than 25 years after the end of the Cold War, the members of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Science and Security Board have looked closely at the world situation and found it highly threatening to humanity — so threatening that the hands of the Doomsday Clock must once again be set at three minutes to midnight, two minutes closer to catastrophe than in 2014," wrote the board which includes 17 Nobel laureates in a memo addressed to "Leaders and citizens of the world" published in the Bulletin last Monday.
The bulletin created the Doomsday Clock two years after the formation of the group using the imagery of apocalypse (midnight) and the contemporary idiom of nuclear explosion (countdown to zero) to convey threats to humanity and the planet, according to the group's website.
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"The decision to move (or to leave in place) the minute hand of the Doomsday Clock is made every year by the bulletin's Science and Security Board in consultation with its board of sponsors, which includes 17 Nobel laureates. The clock has become a universally recognized indicator of the world's vulnerability to catastrophe from nuclear weapons, climate change, and new technologies emerging in other domains," it claimed.
"The science is clear: Insufficient action to slash worldwide emissions of greenhouse gases can produce global climatic catastrophe. Even a so-called 'limited' nuclear weapons exchange will produce massive casualties and severe effects on the global environment. We implore the political leaders of the world to take coordinated, quick action to drastically reduce global emissions of heat-trapping gases, especially carbon dioxide, and shrink nuclear weapons arsenals," argued the memo.
"We also implore the citizens of the world to demand action from their leaders. The threat looms over all of humanity. Humanity needs to respond now, while there is still time," it added.
