Doomsday Clock Moves Ever Closer to Midnight
By Editors - January 28, 2021
Members of The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists' Science and Security
Board, Robert Rosner and Suzet McKinney, reveal the 2021 setting of the
Doomsday Clock at 100 seconds to midnight. [Source: thebulletin.org]
Amidst a deadly global pandemic, rising threat of climate change, and
nuclear war, The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists (The Bulletin) has set its
2021 clock at 100 seconds to midnight, the closest it has ever been to
armaggedon.
In a press conference on Wednesday, January 27th, Rachel Bronson, the
director of The Bulletin, stated that "we are now at the two-minute warning
due to the man-made threats of climate change and nuclear war."
Rachel Bronson [Source: thebulletin.org]
According to Bronson, what is especially disturbing about our current moment
is the "undermining of science and law-based approaches to solving major
world problems and discarding of international agreements by influential
leaders."
"The early denial of the Coronavirus pandemic threat and vilifying of
prominent scientists," Bronson said, "epitomizes a dangerous erosion of
science" that is leading us closer to disaster. "The falling dominoes have
been made possible by years of denigrating scientists and promotion of
conspiracy theories."
The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists consist of a collection of leading
scientists concerned about the misapplication of technology in society.
The Doomsday Clock was first set up in 1947 as a metaphor for threats to
humanity from unchecked scientific and technical advances.
[Source: pinterest.com]
Midnight is the hypothetical global catastrophe that will result from the
deployment of nuclear weapons or destruction of the environment if climate
change progresses.
The Clock's original setting in 1947 was seven minutes to midnight. It has
been set backward and forward 24 times since then, with the largest-ever
number of minutes to midnight being 17, set in 1991.
[Source: usatoday.com]
The reason for the backslide is in part due to the growing Cold War rivalry
between the U.S., China, and Russia, which has led to the dismantling of
nuclear arms control agreements like the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Range
Treaty (INF) in 2019 and heightened threat of nuclear winter.
Dr. Steve Fetter, a Science and Security Board member of The Bulletin and
Dean of Public Policy at the University of Maryland, stated at the press
conference that the
risk of nuclear war has become unacceptably high. The U.S. has embarked on a
trillion-dollar nuclear modernization program, and Russia is also
modernizing its nuclear arsenal in response to the U.S. deployment of
ballistic missiles; and so is China. The outbreak of conventional war among
these powers could very well lead to nuclear war.
Former California Governor Jerry Brown (1975-1983; 2011-2019), the executive
editor of The Bulletin, echoed Fetter in denouncing the new nuclear arms
race.
Jerry Brown [Source: wikipedia.com]
Brown told those at the press conference that "the U.S. and Russia, the
world's two top nuclear powers, must stop shouting at each other. It is time
now to eliminate nuclear weapons, not build more, and [also] to get serious
about fighting climate change."
Brown noted that he had been around politicians for many years and found
that most politicians that he worked with understood the issues pretty well
but were reluctant to tell the American people the real dangers that they
faced.
Brown also criticized the mainstream media for fixating on Russia's misdeeds
[real or imagined] which he said are "infinitesimal compared to the
potential for a nuclear holocaust."
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf [Source: wikipedia.com]
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the former President of Liberia and chair of the
World Health Organization (WHO) Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and
Response, expressed some optimism at the press conference with a new
administration in Washington which "respects science and multilateral
cooperation."
Sirleaf pointed to Biden's support for (1) the new Strategic Arms Reduction
Treaty (START) with Russia, (2) the Paris climate change accords, and (3)
the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with Iran as encouraging, and
conveyed hope that a new spirit and determination was beginning to take
hold-a process that could "lead people to fight over the coming years to
build a better world."
See the official statement of The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists announcing
the Doomsday Clock change-it's worth a good read.
