The reason the Doomsday clock hasn’t moved and we have 100 seconds left to annihilation? “The world is not safer than it was last year at this time,” say the scientists responsible for this clock that started for the first time in 1947 at the hands of American scientists involved in the Manhattan Project (responsible for the first nuclear weapons during the WWII). Back then, the clock was set at 7 minutes to midnight.
The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists has released the status of the Doomsday Clock that tracks the probability of humanity’s annihilation . This is the 75th time he has done it. Since then, the group has announced annually whether the minute hand has moved closer to or farther from midnight, the marker for disaster. The closer we are to midnight, the closer we are to catastrophe for humanity.
“The Doomsday clock stands dangerously still, reminding us how much work is needed to ensure a safer and healthier planet,” reflects Rachel Bronson, president of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. “We must continue to move the hands of the clock away from midnight.”
What has the committee of experts been based on?
The decision has been based on several events , including the risks of nuclear war, the lack of action against climate change (alleging empty promises by governments), the spread of erroneous information or fake news related to the COVID-19 pandemic. 19 and public resistance to vaccines, and the conflict in space.
The purpose of this watch is to highlight that we are still in a dangerous historical moment, and humanity is even closer. to a potential apocalypse than ever.
It’s funny because when the watch debuted to the public after World War II, nuclear weapons were thought to be the greatest man-made threat to our existence. Time passed, and other relevant risks appeared on the scene, such as climate change or pandemics. And 100 seconds before midnight, it is the closest the hands have been to the so-called hour of reckoning in the history of this symbolic clock; closer to midnight than in any other period of the cold war, including the Cuban missile crisis.
Over the last three-quarters of a century, the time on the clock has changed, based on how close scientists have established the human race was to total destruction. Some years the weather changes, and others it doesn’t. Of course, before it used to be minutes and now it only works with seconds. The clock has ticked back and forth 24 times since 1947 and the furthest it has been from the day of annihilation was 1991, set at 11:43 p.m., when tensions between the former Soviet Union and the US escalated. decreased after the reunification of Germany and the signing of the first Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.
If the clock strikes midnight, something that we hope never happens, it would mean that some event or events have ended humanity.
It is still possible to turn back the clock with smart and concrete actions. For example, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists argues that correcting the spread of misinformation about the coronavirus, which is “crippling the ability of public health authorities and medical science to achieve higher vaccination rates,” would be one of the actions that would make possible an improvement in the global situation of humanity.
Referencia: Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
