Doomsday Clock ticks forward: Trump, nukes and climate change blamed
The Doomsday Clock is now just two minutes from apocalypse, with the symbolic countdown to mankind's destruction ticking closer to midnight. Handiwork of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, the clock is a representation of experts' beliefs – and fears – about the current state of the world. Midnight, so the theory goes, marks global calamity.
It was founded back in 1947, by scientists at the University of Chicago, and in the face of potential nuclear war between global superpowers. Since then, the clock's scope has expanded to encompass climate change, financial collapse, and more. In recent years, though, its been an ominous return to nuclear destruction that has given the scientists responsible for the clock's hands cause for concern.
Now, they've set it to 2 minutes to midnight, its closest to that deadline since 1953 and the height of the Cold War. Again, it's nuclear war and climate change that are fueling the change, though "the decline of U.S. leadership and a related demise of diplomacy under the Trump Administration" is also cited as a factor.
"Neither allies nor adversaries have been able to reliably predict U.S. actions or understand when U.S. pronouncements are real, and when they are mere rhetoric," the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists said today. "International diplomacy has been reduced to name-calling, giving it a surrealistic sense of unreality that makes the world security situation ever more threatening."
Twelve months ago, the first signs of that caused the group to set the clock forward to 2.5 minutes to midnight. Since then, little improvement has been seen across the board. "In 2017, world leaders failed to respond effectively to the looming threats of nuclear war and climate change, making the world security situation more dangerous than it was a year ago—and as dangerous as it has been since World War II," the group argues.
President Trump's adversarial governing style, not least his vocal tweets, aren't helping. "Hyperbolic rhetoric and provocative actions on both sides have increased the possibility of nuclear war by accident or miscalculation," the clock-makers warn. "On the climate change front, the danger may seem less immediate, but avoiding catastrophic temperature increases in the long run requires urgent attention now .... The nations of the world will have to significantly decrease their greenhouse gas emissions to keep climate risks manageable, and so far, the global response has fallen far short of meeting this challenge."
Are we too far gone for salvation? The official message is no, but it's time for some serious change. The to-do list certainly isn't easy, though: "cool Trump nuclear rhetoric, negotiate with North Korea, stick with Iran deal, reduce US-Russian tensions, and insist on global action on climate change" is the scientists' wishlist.