The Doomsday Clock
The Doomsday Clock is a symbol which represents the likelihood of a man-made global catastrophe. Maintained since 1947 by the members of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists' Science and Security Board, the Clock represents an analogy for the threat of global nuclear war. Since 2007, it has also reflected climate change and new developments in the life sciences and technology that could inflict irrevocable harm to humanity.
The Clock represents the hypothetical global catastrophe as "midnight" and The Bulletin's opinion on how close the world is to a global catastrophe as a number of "minutes" to midnight. Its original setting in 1947 was seven minutes to midnight. It has been set backward and forward 22 times since then, the smallest-ever number of minutes to midnight being two (in 1953 and 2018) and the largest seventeen (in 1991). As of January 2018, the Clock is set at two minutes to midnight, due to global threat of nuclear war, the United States not being involved in world leadership roles, and climate change. - wiki
Keepers of The Doomsday Clock Say We're Now Only 2 Minutes to Midnight
ScienceAlertHere's what scientists say we should do.
The Clock is now closer than it has ever been to Doomsday since the height of the Cold War in 1953.
But don't worry, there is still hope. After all, the Doomsday Clock is less a prophecy than it is a warning.
"We've made the clear statement that we feel the world is getting more dangerous," said physicist Lawrence Krauss of Arizona State University.
"We present the clock not so much as doom and gloom, but as an opportunity to get government and the public discussing the important issues."
So what do the scientists suggest we do?
The 2018 Doomsday Clock statement provides some common-sense answers, including:
- US President Donald Trump should refrain from provocative rhetoric regarding North Korea, recognising the impossibility of predicting North Korean reactions.
- The world community should pursue, as a short-term goal, the cessation of North Korea's nuclear weapon and ballistic missile tests.
- The Trump administration should abide by the terms of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action for Iran's nuclear program unless credible evidence emerges that Iran is not complying.
- The United States and Russia should discuss and adopt measures to prevent peacetime military incidents along the borders of NATO.
- The international community should establish new protocols to discourage and penalise the misuse of information technology to undermine public trust in political institutions, in the media, in science, and in the existence of objective reality itself.
We hope world leaders are paying attention because time is running out.
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