The Doomsday Clock

Opening Statement

 

The “Doomsday Clock” sounds like a silly name for a device from a B-Grade post-apocalyptic movie, but it’s actually a real-life measure of how close the world is to its own destruction at any given time. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, founded by Manhattan Project scientists who invented the nuclear bomb, with 12 Nobel laureates on its executive board just moved its Doomsday Clock to 100 Seconds before the midnight in January 2020, and that was before Covid-19 had ravaged most of the world. Today we are going to look at the Doomsday Clock, and why we may be closer to the end than we might think !!

 

A Little History

 

The Doomsday Clock's origin can be traced to the international group of researchers called the Chicago Atomic Scientists, who had participated in the Manhattan Project. After the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, they began publishing a mimeographed newsletter and then the magazine, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which, since its inception, has depicted the Clock on every cover. The Clock was first represented in 1947, when the Bulletin co-founder Hyman Goldsmith asked artist Martyl Langsdorf to design a cover for the magazine's June 1947 issue.

In January 2007, designer Michael Bierut, who was on the Bulletin's Governing Board, redesigned the Clock to give it a more modern feel.

 

What the Clock Symbolises

 

The clock is a symbol of how close we are to “destroying our world” using “dangerous technologies of our own making,” according to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, the nonprofit organization and publication that controls the clock. The closer it moves to midnight, the closer we are to Armageddon [meaning of Armageddon the last battle between good and evil before the Day of Judgement].

 

 

Clock Settings

 

The clock's minute hand started at seven minutes to midnight [ midnight — a metaphor for the end of the world ] in 1947. Nuclear weapons development pushed it forward during the remainder of the 40s and early 50s, but the arms race showed signs of slowing in the 1960s, resulting in the minute hand going back as far as 12 minutes to midnight. And it's been a similar up and down picture ever since, with the Doomsday Clock managing to display 17 minutes to midnight in the early 1990s. Good times.

 

Tick, Tick, Tick. Why the Doomsday Clock is Moving Closer to Midnight

 

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is moving the Doomsday Clock up to 100 seconds to midnight - in a recognition of growing threats from nuclear war, climate change, and disinformation.

It is the first time the clock has passed the two-minute mark in more than 70 years of existence, a testament to the need for urgent action.

Humanity continues to face two simultaneous existential dangers—nuclear war and climate change—that are compounded by a threat multiplier, cyber-enabled information warfare, that undercuts society’s ability to respond. The international security situation is dire, not just because these threats exist, but because world leaders have allowed the international political infrastructure for managing them to erode.

 

My Opinion

 

We live in troubled and troubling times. Though we can, if we look, find reasons for optimism, many indicators are pointing in the wrong direction – threats from unknown viruses, more armed conflicts, more military spending, more arms trading. Worse, this unfolds against a seriously concerning the background of long-term trends: increasingly toxic geopolitics, the crumbling of arms control, and the climate crisis.

We are sending millions to find a place to live in outer space but cannot spend half of the amount to improve the current situation on earth.

The global leaders should all come together forgetting their conflicts and should address these issues before its too late.

Thank You 

If you have any question or suggestions please let me know in the comments below. 

My Instagram account - https://www.instagram.com/thepotatoeconomist/