The Doomsday Clock is the closest it’s been to calamity in over 60 years.
The Doomsday Clock is the closest it’s been to calamity in over 60 years.
Every two years a board of scientists, nuclear and climate experts meet to manage the Doomsday Clock, a symbolic instrument that reflects how close humanity is to catastrophe.
In January, the group moved the Clock’s minute hand from three to two and a half minutes before midnight, the hour when everything goes dark. It’s the closest the Clock has been to the last hour since 1953, the year after the United States and the Soviet Union conducted thermonuclear weapon tests.
After the end of the Cold War between the US and the USSR, the clock had steadily ticked backwards away from danger. But in recent years, it’s crept closer to midnight. In 2015, the clock struck three minutes to midnight, the closest it’d been since 1984.
In past years, the board has warned that world leaders were failing to act responsibly on the threats posed by climate change and nuclear war. This year, the board decided to advance the clock closer to midnight largely because of one Donald J. Trump.
As the newly elected US president, the group writes that Trump has “made ill-considered comments about expanding and even deploying the American nuclear arsenal,” and “expressed disbelief in the scientific consensus on global warming.” The board cautioned that they have never advanced the clocks based on a single person, but when that person is the president of the United States, “his words matter.”
Here’s hoping we’re all still around in 2019, when the board reconvenes to move the Doomsday Clock again.
Text: Alvin Soon / Picture: 123rf.com / Igor SerazetdInov
