Doomsday clock remains 100 seconds from midnight, the closest we've been to an apocalypse

[midian182]

What just happened? The Doomsday clock, a symbol of how close humanity is to a global catastrophe, has not moved any closer to midnight. That's the good news. The bad news is that it remains 100 seconds away from the dreaded time, the closest it's ever been since the clock's inception in 1947.

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which was co-founded by Albert Einstein and University of Chicago scientists in 1945, yesterday announced that the Doomsday clock's hands would not change from last year's setting.

The pandemic was a big factor in why the clock did not move backward. "The lethal and fear-inspiring COVID-19 pandemic serves as a historic 'wake-up call,' a vivid illustration that national governments and international organizations are unprepared to manage the truly civilization-ending threats of nuclear weapons and climate change," said Bulletin president and CEO Rachel Bronson.

The Bulletin said disinformation and conspiracy theories had worsened the threat of nuclear and environmental disaster, adding that online disinformation led to the US Capitol riots. "In 2020, online lying literally killed," scientists wrote.

The changing likelihood of nuclear annihilation has long dictated the clock's time. The Bulletin said "legitimate concerns about national leaders who have sole control of the use of nuclear weapons" have been renewed. Developments in Northeast Asia, the Middle East, and South Asia further add to nuclear risks, with North Korea being a particular concern.

North Korea's Hwasong 16

There was also a warning over the environmental impact of post-pandemic stimulus plans. "In aggregate, the G20 countries had committed approximately $240bn to stimulus spending that supports fossil fuel energy by the end of 2020, versus $160bn for clean energy. At present, national plans for fossil fuel development and production are anything but encouraging."

There are some reasons to be optimistic that the clock will move away from midnight next time, including the US rejoining the Paris climate accord and signing a five-year extension to an arms control treaty with Russia that limits the countries' deployed nuclear warheads.

The Doomsday clock's original setting in 1947 was seven minutes to midnight. The furthest away humanity has been from disaster was seventeen minutes to midnight in 1991 when the United States and Soviet Union signed the first Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, and the Soviet Union dissolved.

The Doomsday clock has been slowly inching toward midnight over the last 20 years, reaching its closest, current reading in 2020.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/88443-doomsday-clock-remains-100-seconds-midnight-closest-weve.html

 

[VitalyT]

 

[Uncle Al]

Sorry to say the "weakness" that the last administration put upon us contributed greatly to this situation. It's one thing to talk a big game, but quite another to back up that talk with action. As is correctly stated "The best defense is a strong offence" Until we re-establish the country as THE dominant player on the world stage we will be behind the 8 ball. Not that dominance is essential for success, but against current aggressors it must be re-established, especially in the cases of China, Russia and North Korea. Other smaller nations will quickly take the hint.

POTUS took the first essential step against Russia, now he needs to add teeth to is by directing his military commanders to address ANY provocations with direct force so the advisories understand the degree of seriousness. He also needs to watch North Korea very close and warn them that putting that new Nuclear Sub into commission will not be tolerated & back it up.

This is a BIG change (and a welcome one) for the Democrats that have usually been the "doves" and it could mark a new position for future Democratic administrations.

 

[Mister_K]

Sorry to say the "weakness" that the last administration put upon us contributed greatly to this situation. It's one thing to talk a big game, but quite another to back up that talk with action. As is correctly stated "The best defense is a strong offence" Until we re-establish the country as THE dominant player on the world stage we will be behind the 8 ball.

USA is THE dominant player in the world based on the Military. But you have more pressing issues with internal chaos, poor education, poor healthcare, gun control problems, higher systemic racism etc etc. Russia isn't relevant, yeah they have large stockpiles of nukes and that's about it. China is something more to be worried about but again GL beating its economic power and influence on the world.

This mindset has no place in 21st century. Aggression makes 0 sense, increases in military power as well. Focus on what's important. Also what will NK do, they are not a threat, their stockpiles are small*. No one in their right mind would start a Nuke war, maybe Putin before he dies? lol

"The best defense is, well, defense."

 

[Vulcanproject]

One of the hardest parts of intelligence is understanding what your opposition TRULY believes. North Korea seems to basically want to ensure the regime's survival, nothing more.

They might harbor ambitions to rule the whole peninsula and talk about attacking this and that but they know this is totally and utterly unrealistic, and prefer to concentrate on the regime's survival as priority.

Misinterpreting threats and misunderstanding the posture of an apparently aggressive nation at first glance is what sends you to a war that would have been avoidable. I think back to 1983 where the Soviet Union genuinely thought that they were going to face a first strike. Reality was there was ZERO chance of that happening. Andropov truly believed it.

It was a ridiculously dangerous failure of intelligence on their part. Only people like Oleg Gordievsky feeding this mindset to the west stopped something that was nothing from going hot.

One of the most astounding books I read recently was The Spy and the Traitor, by Ben McIntyre. Unbelievable.

 

[Shadowboxer]

"The lethal and fear-inspiring COVID-19 pandemic serves as a historic 'wake-up call,' a vivid illustration that national governments and international organizations are unprepared to manage the truly civilization-ending threats of nuclear weapons and climate change,"

Hugely agree with this statement. Our governments in general are great at collecting taxes and then wasting them. They are also good at
Conquering each other with deadly forces.

But throw almost any disaster at our administrations and they wobble. I mean right now we have governments who actually think they are going to stop a respiratory virus spreading amongst the human population by pushing the self destruct button on their economies.

 

[Mister_K]

Our governments in general are great at collecting taxes and then wasting them. They are also good at
Conquering each other with deadly forces.

But throw almost any disaster at our administrations and they wobble. I mean right now we have governments who actually think they are going to stop a respiratory virus spreading amongst the human population by pushing the self destruct button on their economies.

They tend to employ the wrong kind of people because why employ geeks* if you can employ marketing to make you look good and strongarms to make you seem strong.

 

[Shadowboxer]

They tend to employ the wrong kind of people because why employ geeks* if you can employ marketing to make you look good and strongarms to make you seem strong.

Well that’s our own fault, we elect our leaders (unless you live in the USA! Wahey!). And we punish them so much and yet people seem to expect so much from their government for nothing in return. We get the dregs of society who don’t care about the tirade of hate they will receive running for office. We manage to scare anyone with any competence to the hills. I mean if you owned a business is there any leader or vice leader etc that you would actually employ and pay with your own money? I can’t think of anyone at all.

 

[m4a4]

Yeah, I don't exactly put any stock in this man-controlled symbol of fear...

 

[wiyosaya]

USA is THE dominant player in the world based on the Military. But you have more pressing issues with internal chaos, poor education, poor healthcare, gun control problems, higher systemic racism etc etc. Russia isn't relevant, yeah they have large stockpiles of nukes and that's about it. China is something more to be worried about but again GL beating its economic power and influence on the world.

Internal chaos - I.e., it does not help when the government faced violent insurrection that would have placed extremely dangerous nuclear weapons in the hands of insurrectionists.

"The lethal and fear-inspiring COVID-19 pandemic serves as a historic 'wake-up call,' a vivid illustration that national governments and international organizations are unprepared to manage the truly civilization-ending threats of nuclear weapons and climate change,"

Hugely agree with this statement. Our governments in general are great at collecting taxes and then wasting them. They are also good at
Conquering each other with deadly forces.

But throw almost any disaster at our administrations and they wobble. I mean right now we have governments who actually think they are going to stop a respiratory virus spreading amongst the human population by pushing the self destruct button on their economies.

As the saying goes, hindsight is better than foresight, but I'll say this anyway: it does not help the situation when an administration will throw out carefully considered plans to control something like the COVID-19 pandemic, without equally careful consideration of what they are doing, on the whim of a wannabe disinformation dictator.

 

[Axle Grease]

I'm surprised any self-respecting scientist would want to be associated with the so-called "Doomsday Clock" being that it has *always* been a grossly unscientific indicator of our proximity to nuclear Armageddon.

"a vivid illustration that national governments and international organizations are unprepared to manage the truly civilization-ending threats of nuclear weapons and climate change change,"

"The Bulletin said disinformation and conspiracy theories had worsened the threat of nuclear and environmental disaster, adding that online disinformation led to the US Capitol riots. "In 2020, online lying literally killed," scientists wrote."

That is not science but rather non sequitur, politically motivated talking points passed as a scientific conclusion. I can get any of that BS from the UK Guardian, CNN and MSNBC.

 

[kimo1]

The clock is slow, somebody should change the batteries already.
And maybe some clock oil, maybe it tried to hit midnight long ago, but it was too rusty.

 

[Michiel]

POTUS took the first essential step against Russia, now he needs to add teeth to is by directing his military commanders to address ANY provocations with direct force s

Holy ****, I'm glad you're not CIC. That sounds like the most direct way to nuclear armageddon possible.

 

[BobHome]

USA is THE dominant player in the world based on the Military. But you have more pressing issues with internal chaos, poor education, poor healthcare, gun control problems, higher systemic racism etc etc. Russia isn't relevant, yeah they have large stockpiles of nukes and that's about it. China is something more to be worried about but again GL beating its economic power and influence on the world.

This mindset has no place in 21st century. Aggression makes 0 sense, increases in military power as well. Focus on what's important. Also what will NK do, they are not a threat, their stockpiles are small*. No one in their right mind would start a Nuke war, maybe Putin before he dies? lol

"The best defense is, well, defense."

I agree Mister K. Most 'wars' these days are economic ones and we created that mess by outsourcing so much of our manufacturing to so many countries starting with Japan after WWII. Then moving to a different low income country when that one got too prosperous (costly to the mfrs).
Would China be where they are if we hadn't brought all our companies over there? But, that is one of the costs of Capitalism, huh....

 

[jelabarre59]

Ah, sounds like The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has decided to jump on the Woke Train. They're now spouting off the same tired bovine-stuff that the rest of the far-left is flogging.

And here all this time I thought they were supposed to be some sort of "think tank". Guess they've decided to forego the "thinking" part.

 

[pcnthuziast]

The American left is the embodiment of everything that's wrong with humanity.

 

[ferrellsl]

The ignorant f@cks who keep the time for this so-called "clock" obviously are not students of history. I suspect they are millennials who are simply virtue signaling in order to get their 15 minutes of fame. They really need to look back in time at the Cuban Missile Crisis. We were literally one second away from a nuclear war that would have wiped out most of humanity.

 

[CBTex]

Internal chaos - I.e., it does not help when the government faced violent insurrection that would have placed extremely dangerous nuclear weapons in the hands of insurrectionists.


As the saying goes, hindsight is better than foresight, but I'll say this anyway: it does not help the situation when an administration will throw out carefully considered plans to control something like the COVID-19 pandemic, without equally careful consideration of what they are doing, on the whim of a wannabe disinformation dictator.

I'm so tired of the constant use of the word "insurrection." Calling those morons insurrectionists is giving them so much more credit than they deserve. At no point was there any risk that those *****s would actually gain control over anything meaningful.

Seems to me that this whole insurrection thing has been morphed by the left into an attempt to silence anyone who disagrees with them instead of just calling out and punishing the actual criminals.

 

[pcnthuziast]

I'm so tired of the constant use of the word "insurrection." Calling those morons insurrectionists is giving them so much more credit than they deserve. At no point was there any risk that those *****s would actually gain control over anything meaningful.

Seems to me that this whole insurrection thing has been morphed by the left into an attempt to silence anyone who disagrees with them instead of just calling out and punishing the actual criminals.

Eventually political and ideological dissent will be punishable by death if they have their way.

 

[wiyosaya]

The American left is the embodiment of everything that's wrong with humanity.

Says someone who sounds like they believe that Trump won the election, and would have supported a wannabe dictator, thus ending any semblance of democracy in the us.

Eventually political and ideological dissent will be punishable by death if they have their way.

We get you support such. And you would have been happy if the crazy-a$$ mob in DC had executed Pelosi, Schumer, and Pence. Talk about people who would have it only their way if they were in power.

 

[wiyosaya]

I'm so tired of the constant use of the word "insurrection." Calling those morons insurrectionists is giving them so much more credit than they deserve. At no point was there any risk that those *****s would actually gain control over anything meaningful.

Seems to me that this whole insurrection thing has been morphed by the left into an attempt to silence anyone who disagrees with them instead of just calling out and punishing the actual criminals.

Maybe not this time, but the question still remains, since there are those who continue to believe the big lie, what will happen if that kind of thing occurs again? You may doubt that it would succeed, but the door has been opened for the radicalized domestic right.

 

[pcnthuziast]

Says someone who sounds like they believe that Trump won the election, and would have supported a wannabe dictator, thus ending any semblance of democracy in the us.

We get you support such. And you would have been happy if the crazy-a$$ mob in DC had executed Pelosi, Schumer, and Pence. Talk about people who would have it only their way if they were in power.

You like to assume things. Things that aren't true.

 

[SixTymes]

The moment the clock reaches midnight, POOF! we all disappear in an instant.

 

[PEnnn]

The American left is the embodiment of everything that's wrong with humanity.

Yes, we saw the real face of the treasonous American right when the election losers and their zombie base attacked the Capitol to overturn an election they lost by a landslide.

The American conservatives won't rest till the US is a fascist Banana Republic, where a con-artist slum-lord billionaire daily convinces his pathetic base that he is one of them!

As to Humanity? I think you don't even know what that word means!

 

[pcnthuziast]

Yes, we saw the real face of the treasonous American right when the election losers and their zombie base attacked the Capitol to overturn an election they lost by a landslide.

The American conservatives won't rest till the US is a fascist Banana Republic, where a con-artist slum-lord billionaire daily convinces his pathetic base that he is one of them!

As to Humanity? I think you don't even know what that word means!

Why the personal disdain? Seems like you and that other fellow assume I am an ideologue and on the right. I am not a partisan or an ideologue. I feel no connection to either party and don't align exactly with any of the ideological labels like conservative, liberal, progressive, moderate, etc. Like most people. I call out 1 side more because they have the voice and the presence and dominate every aspect of public life and politics in America. As they have for decades. The other side as a whole I don't think I actually even know, only the internet memes and stereotypes. In my life I just know people. Individuals. For the majority of my life I never thought in terms of any labels and saw the world as a sea of singularly unique individuals. Ultimately my perspective is that there are no good guys. It's just a bunch of baddies fighting for supremacy and as to the proposition of choosing a side I say, no thanks. I'd rather go it alone.