The scientists of the "Bulletin of Atomic Scientists" are sounding the knell. Will they at last be heard? They keep resetting the "Doomsday Clock" by noting the events of the previous year. In 1991, after the Cold War ended, they placed the long hand of the clock at 17 minutes to midnight. Since then, it has moved only forward. In 2015 it stood at 3 minutes to midnight; in 2017 at 2 minutes; in 2020 100 seconds (as announced in January, a month before the invasion of Ukraine!). And now it stands at 89 seconds...
Only one second less? True, but that is highly symbolic: it means, they say, that from now on "every second counts". They say that with anguish and gravity: "this is the worst moment in the history of the clock".
Created in 1947, the Doomsday Clock warns us of the risk, more or less close to us, of seeing our world destroyed by dangerous technologies that we have created. It is a metaphor, a warning of the dangers that we need to confront if we want to survive on this planet.
When the Clock was created in 1947, the greatest danger for humanity came from nuclear weapons, notably from the sense that the USA and the USSR were heading into a nuclear arms race. And that in fact did happen. The long hand was then set at 7 minutes to midnight. In 1953, when the Korean War was opposing east to west, it stood at 7 minutes to midnight. In 2007, Bulletin for the first time examined in its deliberations the potentially catastrophic effects of climate change. This year, additional factors were invoked, including the risks of pandemics, the militarization of space or the disruptive technologies.
These new threats have not eclipsed the nuclear threat, quite the contrary, these compound with it, making it even more probable, more imminent.
Now, on 28 January 2025, as every year around this time, they have held in Chicago the conference at which they announce how close we are to midnight, the fatal hour that will sound the knell of humanity.
Whoever has heard them and listened to them no longer has the luxury of looking away. Right now our house is on fire, TRULY.
