Doomsday Clock Strikes Midnight: What It Means for Our Future 🌍

The invasion that Russia has wrongfully started in Ukraine has led to more people talking about the threat of Nuclear war and World War 3. How does the Doomsday Clock relate to all this?
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Script:
Since 2020, the Doomsday Clock has been set to 100 seconds to midnight. Which is the closest its ever been to midnight in its 75 years of existence. As the scientists who set the clock put it: we’re “at doom’s doorstep.”

The Doomsday Clock is a metaphor to remind humans how close we are to destroying our planet through the technology we develop, with midnight representing the apocalypse. It's a symbol to remind us to address these dangers so that we can survive on our planet. It was created by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, an organization founded by scientists at the University of Chicago who worked on the Manhattan Project, which was America’s effort to develop atomic weapons during the Cold War.

When the Doomsday Clock debuted in 1947, its creator, artist Martyl Langsdorf, set it to 7 minutes to midnight. She was married to a physicist who worked on the Manhattan Project. When she heard him and other scientists talk about the consequences of developing this dangerous technology, she created the clock to show that we didn’t have much time left to get atomic weapons under control.

Since then, it’s set by scientists and experts in the field of nuclear technology and, as of 2007, climate science. When things like political tensions raise the threat of nuclear war and as the dangers of climate change rise, the clock is set closer and closer to midnight.

For instance, like when a country with massive stockpiles of warheads and nuclear materials, that is currently developing both hypersonic and anti-satellite missiles and has an active biological weapons programs, invades a neighboring country for no good reason.

The Clock hand was most recently moved in 2020, from two minutes to midnight to 100 seconds to midnight. At this time, national leaders were ending or undermining major arms treaties and negotiations to control nuclear weapons, governments were doing little to curb carbon dioxide emissions and climate change, and these dangers were made all the worse by cyber-disinformation campaigns that were used for political propaganda.

Two years later, and not much has changed. Political tensions are still high–and in some instances, have already reached a boiling point, little is being done to address climate change, and technologies are still being developed and used in dangerous ways.

Okay, I know what you’re thinking, this seems like a lot to deal with. How could we ever recover from such a horrible, and frankly terrifying, reality?
Well, there are things we can do to help push back the clock. The Bulletin suggests educating ourselves on these technologies and the potential issues they create, talking about them to spread awareness, and contacting our political leaders to tell them what we want to see changed.

From where we’re standing right now, the future may be looking a little bleak. But just by paying attention and speaking up against dangerous decisions, we could get ourselves some more time on that clock.

Meet the Team!
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Director/Voice - Pat Graziosi: http://twitter.com/PatGraziosi
Executive Producer - Keith Comito: https://twitter.com/KeithComito
Animation by Robert Grisham
Written by Ashleen Knutsen

Sources!
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https://thebulletin.org/doomsday-clock/2020-doomsday-clock-statement/
https://thebulletin.org/doomsday-clock/faq/
https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/the-manhattan-project
https://thebulletin.org/doomsday-clock/current-time/
https://thebulletin.org/2022/02/bulletin-statement-on-russians-invasion-of-ukraine/

#Ukraine #doomsdayclock #lifenoggin