The Doomsday Clock Stays at Two Minutes to Midnight

Today, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists elected to keep the Doomsday Clock at 11:58 PM, thus two minutes to the apocalyptic midnight two years in a row. Midnight is symbolic of world annihilation. This is the closest to midnight the clock has ever been since its inception in 1947. The Doomsday Clock was established then due to the world having suffered WWII. The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists now consists of fifteen scientists and scholars who have been awarded fifteen Nobel prizes.

Two minutes to midnight is the closest the clock as ever been set near midnight. And it has only been set there one other time, in 1953. That is because the Soviet Union and the U.S. had become locked in an atomic armaments race called the Cold War. It lasted until the dissolution of the Soviet Union, in December 1991. At the beginning of that year, the Doomsday Clock had been set its farthest from midnight, which was seventeen minutes to midnight. Thus, the scientists believed the world was at peace at that time more than ever since WWII.

The scientists explained that the two main factors that caused them to this time keep the clock at two minutes to midnight was the threat of nuclear weapons and the destructive effects on our planet due to human-induced global warming.

Robert Rosner, chairman of the Bulletin’s Science and Security Board, stated today, “The fact that the Doomsday Clock’s hands did not change is bad news.” The board stated that the Iran nuclear agreement, which U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from, “is not perfect, but it serves the interest of the international community in restraining the spread of nuclear weapons.”

The board also criticized President Trump for announcing he would take the U.S. out of the 2015 Paris Climate Accord. Trump has stated that he does not believe there is any human-induced global warming. He should talk to the new member of the House of Representatives, Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez about her Green New Deal. (See my last post, which is about her.) The sparks would fly if they got into a chat, probably no matter what it was about. If that happened, those scientists might have to move the Doomsday Clock one minute to midnight!