Since 1947, every year in January the hands on the doomsday clock are moved closer to or further from midnight. Midnight being doomsday.
In 2012, it was set to 5 minutes to midnight because of the nuclear threat Kim Jong-Un presented in Korea.
In 2016, it was set to 3 mins to midnight because of lack of action on climate change and nuclear weapon arsenals remaining.
In 1991, when the Berlin wall fell, it was set to 17 minutes to midnight. Peace seemed more likely.
As far as I can tell, the clock hasn’t been at 2 mins to midnight since 1953, when the USA tested the first hydrogen bomb. I didn’t find any reference to 1 minute to midnight.
Enter 2017. Trump wants to expand the nuclear weapon arsenals, and is all but denying climate change. Those are two major factors in shortening the time to doomsday.
What will the setting be this January when they reset the clock? 2 minutes to midnight, 1 minute to midnight? Will it go the other way?
Two of the largest nuclear superpowers, both being run by unhinged tough guys, potentially teaming up their arsenals to “protect” the world? Color me terrified.
This is one of those situations where developments have shown the Doomsday Clock to be nothing more than a silly exercise in bad marketing.
By their calculations, and keeping the clock analogy with its implied 24hr day, we are already 1437/1440th away from nuclear obliteration. So what does it matter if the US gives the bomb to Donald Trump? What are they going to do…raise that percentage from the current likelihood of 99.7916% to, what, 99.8611%? Even as an analogy: what the hell does that even mean: N Korea, with its few weapons, gets us to a 99.79% chance of humanity’s doom, and DJT with his thousands of bombs, only increases this threat by 6/10th’s of 1%? How do those numbers make any damned sense?
If this idea had any validity and was, in fact, a measure of this groups concern about the direction of current events, they wouldn’t keep the clock within the range of 98.81%-99.81% of “midnight”.
One leader determined to intentionally destroy the US at any cost, the other capable of unwittingly destroying the US without so much as a clue about what happened. I can hear the clock ticking from here.
Absolutely agreed. Its only useful purpose seems to me to be as a constant reminder that we are just one bad event away from nuclear war, and have been as long as they’ve existed on any kind of wide scale. In which case, why adjust it at all?
Actually, I can’t think of even one world leader off the top of my head that I’d characterize as “determined to… destroy the US at any cost.” Putin thinks our presence is an inconvenience, yes, but I really doubt he loathes it as much as you think he does, or even at all. I’m sure he’d be happy to coexist as long as he could do what he wants in Russia and Eastern Europe.
The hands won’t be able to move anymore under the weight of all the gold and jewels Trump has them decorated with to prove that he has the classiest, yuuuuuuugest, bigliest Doomsday Clock anyone has ever seen.
It should be maybe 2 minutes of 12:00. The US and Russia may not be launching any time soon, but one of the underreported stories of the past month was how the Pakistani defense minister fell for a fake news story and threatened nuclear attacks on Israel. It might very well be a fake news story that sets off Armageddon.
If it isn’t fake news, it’s going to be increased Israeli militarism and their defiance of the UN. They continue to build settlements, the Palestinians boil over in rage, Israelis overreact and the Arab world attacks, bringing Russia on the Syrian side and the US jumps in blindly on the Israeli. The regional conflict turns global and the species is extinct.
If Trump with frivolous determination and spectacular lack of judgement shoots Russian aircraft out of the Syrian sky to teach them a lesson in knuckling under, that will definitely set off WWIII.
*Putin once casually said over dinner that he could destroy America in a half-hour or less
*
*Putin then added that the only reason the US had any interest in relations with Moscow was that Russia was the only country that could “destroy America in half an hour or less.”
Schoen and Kaylan conclude: “It would be difficult to find a statement more revealing about Putin’s true position regarding the United States.”*
But that’s true. Conversely, the US could destroy Russia in a half hour as well. Those are facts. Not seeing how relaying facts reveals one way or the other how Putin feels. Maybe he does want to destroy the US but that quote doesn’t demonstrate it.
The Doomsday Clock always shot its own credibility to pieces with its constant crying-wolf. The clock is 11:57! The clock is 11:58! It’s 11:57 again!..when in fact, it was always more like 1:00 or 2:00.
You’re forgetting about the other idiot in the room. The orange one. “I’ll have to be very careful here,” Scarborough said. “Several months ago, a foreign policy expert on international level went to advise Donald Trump, and three times he asked about the use of nuclear weapons. Three times he asked, at one point, if we have them, why can’t we use them? That’s one of the reasons he just doesn’t have foreign policy experts around him. Three times, in an hour briefing, why can’t we use nuclear weapons.”
One leader is a enemy of the US, the other a complete buffoon. Both have access to nuclear weapons. What could possibly go wrong?