Doomsday Clock Nearing Midnight; Here’s What that Means

On Thursday, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (BAS) said that the Doomsday Clock is now 100 seconds away from midnight.

This means that our planet is completing its annihilation.

Reasons, according to the BAS, are nuclear proliferation, cyber-based disinformation, and failure to address climate change. The clock is now standing to its closest hour to doomsday. 

It began in 1947. This was to tackle and warn people about nuclear war dangers in that same year.

In 2019, it was set two minutes before midnight. Midnight means the end of the world.

BAS President Rachel Bronson said that time is now in seconds rather than in minutes because now it needs attention, and the levels of threats are getting worse. 

According to her, influential leaders are “denigrate and discard the most effective methods for addressing complex threats”.The BAS Science and Security Board made this decision. The board consisted of 13 Nobel Laureates and was joined by The Elders.

Ban Ki-moon, the former UN General Secretary, addressed, “We must act and work together. Not a single country or person can do it alone. We need all hands on deck, and we can all work together.”

He is also a member of The Elders, a team of international leaders and other former officials, which was founded by Nelson Mandela.

One member of the panel is former California Governor, Jerry Brown, saying “Dangerous rivalry and hostility among the superpowers increases the likelihood of nuclear blunder. Climate change compounds the crisis. If there’s ever a time to wake up, it’s now.” 

Astrophysicist Robert Rosner said, “Past experience has taught us that even in the most dismal periods of the Cold War, we can come together. It is high time we do so again”.

Another factor that the committee tackled is the upcoming US presidential election in November regarding the “government-used cyber-enabled disinformation campaigns to sow distrust in institutions and among nations.”

Robert Latiff stressed untruths, exaggerations, and misinterpretations,” a problem that could lead to the “wholesale trashing” of scientific evidence. Deepfake videos, he said, “threaten to undermine truth from fiction.”

According to BAS’s statement: “This situation — two major threats to human civilization, amplified by sophisticated, technology-propelled propaganda — would be serious enough if leaders around the world were focused on managing the danger and reducing the risk of catastrophe, Instead, over the last two years, we have seen influential leaders denigrate and discard the most effective methods for addressing complex threats — international agreements with strong verification regimes — in favor of their narrow interests and domestic political gain. To say the world is nearer to doomsday today than during the Cold War — when the United States and the Soviet Union had tens of thousands more nuclear weapons than they now possess — is to make a profound assertion that demands a serious explanation,” the statement reads. 

But it argues it’s warranted because the old risks remain present. In contrast, new threats, including artificial intelligence and bioterrorism, have joined them, and our international institutions are crumbling in the face of the challenge.”

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