The world “is not safer”: the doomsday clock, which since 1947 has symbolized the imminence of a planetary cataclysm, was kept at 100 seconds from the fateful gong on Thursday, with no improvement noticed since this record set in 2020.
Posted yesterday at 4:37 p.m.
The risks posed by nuclear proliferation, climate change and the pandemic, in particular, have this year been exacerbated by “a dysfunctional information ecosystem that undermines rational decision-making”, notes the organization which, since the Cold War, determines this allegory of our exposure to global dangers.
PHOTO WIKIPEDIA VIA FEDERATION OF AMERICAN SCIENTISTS
US Marine Corps chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear defense specialists during training reproducing weapons of mass destruction scenarios.
“We are stuck in a perilous moment, which does not bring stability or security,” said academic Sharon Squassoni, one of the leaders of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which manages this clock.
“The doomsday clock continues to hover above our heads, reminding us of the work needed to ensure a safer and healthier planet,” said NGO President Rachel Bronson.
“If humanity is to avoid an existential catastrophe, which would eclipse all that it has ever seen, national leaders must do a much better job of countering misinformation, heeding science and cooperating,” she continued. .
More than in previous years, the issue of information is seen as crucial by the NGO.
PHOTO MAXAR TECHNOLOGIES, VIA FEDERATION OF AMERICAN SCIENTISTS
Satellite images show the construction of missile silos near Yumen in central China.
Herb Lin, digital security expert, has worried that no “rational argument” will now suffice to persuade people with entrenched beliefs, leading to “fractures in our common understanding of what is true”.
According to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 2021 brought no significant change for the climate.
” Last year […] we’ve had the heat dome over North America, fires around the world, droughts and floods, but that’s just a sample of what’s to come if we don’t bring the zero carbon dioxide emissions,” said Raymond Pierrehumbert, professor of physics at Oxford University.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists was founded in 1945 by Albert Einstein, Robert Oppenheimer and scientists who worked on the “Manhattan Project”, which produced the first atomic bomb.
PHOTO WIKIPEDIA, VIA BULLETIN OF THE ATOMIC SCIENTISTS
The risks posed by nuclear proliferation, climate change and the pandemic, among others, have this year been exacerbated by “a dysfunctional information ecosystem that undermines rational decision-making”, notes the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
The apocalypse clock, created in 1947, initially responded to the nuclear danger and the growing tensions between the two blocs, but today takes into account COVID-19, the climate or even “State disinformation campaigns”.
The scientific and security council of the NGO, responsible for the clock, is mainly made up of American academics, specialists in nuclear security, the climate or political science.
The doomsday clock when it was created showed seven minutes to midnight. In 1991, at the end of the Cold War, it had gone back to 17 minutes before midnight. In 1953, as well as in 2018 and 2019, it displayed midnight minus 2.