TORONTO – For the first time since 1983, the Doomsday Clock has moved to three minutes to midnight.
The Doomsday Clock, used since 1947, measures how close humans are to destroying our civilization, according to the opinion of a group of scientists.
The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists Science and Security Board announced on Thursday that the Doomsday Clock has moved ahead by two minutes, taking us to three minutes to midnight. The last time it was moved was in 2012 when it moved ahead from six minutes to five.
Since its inception, the clock has moved ahead only 18 times. The last time the clock was at three minutes to midnight was in 1983, during tense U.S.-Soviet relations.
In a press conference Thursday morning, Kennette Benedict, executive director of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists said that two factors played a role in the advancement of the clock: nuclear weapons and climate change.
“Today, unchecked climate change and a nuclear arms race resulting from modernization of huge arsenals pose extraordinary and undeniable threats to the continued existence of humanity. And world leaders have failed to act with the speed or on the scale required to protect citizens from potential catastrophe,” said Benedict.
“These failures of leadership endanger every person on Earth. Based on their observations, the members of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Science and Security Board find conditions in the world to be so threatening that they are moving the hands of the Doomsday Clock two minutes closer to midnight. It is now 3 minutes to midnight.”
Sharon Squassoni, a member of the Science and Security Board, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, and director and senior fellow at the Proliferation Prevention Program, Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that the efforts to disarm had slowed significantly over the past several years.
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Squassoni specifically cited the investment in weapons programs by both the United States and Russia, as well as China, India, Pakistan and North Korea.
Concerns over the rapid rise in greenhouse gas emissions also helped to prompt the move. The Bulletin is calling upon world leaders to to take action to both reduce nuclear arsenals and reduce global greenhouse gas emissions.
“Action has to be taken soon,” said Richard Somerville, a member of the Science and Security Board, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, and a distinguished professor emeritus and research professor at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. “We’re going in the wrong direction…and that has to change. The urgency is very real.”
“Nuclear weapons pose more risks than benefits,” Squassoni said during the press conference.
The threat isn’t so much from someone “pushing the button,” she stressed, but rather the fact that so much money and time are invested into ensuring that someone doesn’t. Another concern is the chance that cyber-crime may lead to security systems being compromised.
“As long as there are nuclear weapons in the world…and they’re poised and ready to use, we still need to warn the world about the danger from these,” said Benedict. “And about the dangerous choices we make about the technologies we use.
“The choice is ours, and the clock is ticking.”
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