Amid Trump shock, Doomsday Clock ticks one second, now closest ever to midnight
The Doomsday Clock symbolising how close humanity is to destruction ticked one second closer to midnight Tuesday as concerns on nuclear war, climate and public health were jolted by US President Donald Trump’s return.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which set up the clock at the start of the Cold War, shifted the clock to 89 seconds to midnight, the closest it has ever been, a week after Trump’s inauguration.
The clock was last moved to 90 seconds to midnight over nuclear-armed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. It was originally placed at seven minutes to midnight in 1947.
“At 89 seconds to midnight, the Doomsday Clock stands closer to catastrophe than at any moment in its history,” said former Colombian president and Nobel Peace laureate Juan Manuel Santos, chair of The Elders, a group of major former leaders.
“The clock speaks to the existential threats that confront us and the need for unity and bold leadership to turn back its hands,” he told a news conference in Washington to present the findings from the board of experts.
“This is a bleak picture. But it is not yet irreversible,” he said.
Just days into his second presidency, Trump has already shattered norms on international cooperation.
Santos welcomed Trump’s pledges for diplomacy with Russia and China. Trump has vowed to end the Ukraine war, which has raised fears of Russian use of nuclear weapons, by pressing both sides.
But Santos said that the US withdrawal from the Paris climate accord and the World Health Organization set back the planet on two top risks.
The world just experienced another record-breaking year of high temperatures and major disasters.
Other countries could soon say that if the United States, the world’s largest economy, “is not going to make an effort to limit the carbon emissions, why should I?” Santos said.
And with many people’s memories fading of COVID-19, “we have to remind them what happened — and what will happen will be worse, according to all the scientists,” Santos said.
AFP
