Atomic scientists reset their symbolic “Doomsday Clock” to its closest time to midnight in 64 years last week. They believe that the world is much closer to catastrophe due to threats such as nuclear weapons, climate change and Donald Trump’s election as U.S. president.
The timepiece, devised by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, is widely viewed as an indicator of the world’s vulnerability to disaster. Its hands were moved to two minutes and 30 seconds to midnight, from three minutes.
“The Doomsday Clock is closer to midnight than it’s ever been in the lifetime of almost everyone in this room,” Lawrence Krauss, the bulletin’s chair, told a news conference in Washington. The doomsday clock was last set this close to midnight in 1953, marking the start of the nuclear arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union. Thursday’s reset was the first since 2015.
Krauss, a theoretical physicist, said Trump and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin carried a large share of the blame for the heightened threat because they are both seeking to modernize their atomic arsenals. Donald Trump has also suggested that South Korea and Japan could acquire nuclear weapons to compete with North Korea, and raised questions about the multilateral nuclear deal with Iran.
“Chinese aid to Pakistan in the nuclear weapons field, as well as the expansion of India and Pakistan’s nuclear arsenals, were also worrisome,” the bulletin said. It also noted that there is little appetite for additional cuts to carbon dioxide emissions, in spite of the Paris agreement to combat climate change.
“The bulletin was founded by scientists who helped develop the United States’ first atomic weapons. Its Science and Security Board decides on the clock’s hands in consultation with its Board of Sponsors, which includes Nobel laureates.”
“And there shall be wars and rumors of wars.” Matthew 24:6.