The scientists in the group do wonderful work and try to monitor how close we are to self destruction. Below is some history of who they are and when and why they move the hands on the doomsday clock.
But first, they’ve just released their decision for 2017.
In the 2017 Doomsday Clock Statement, the Bulletin’s Science and Security Board notes that world leaders have failed to come to grips with humanity’s most pressing existential threats: nuclear weapons and climate change. Disturbing comments about the use and proliferation of nuclear weapons made by Donald Trump, as well as the expressed disbelief in the overwhelming scientific consensus on climate change by both Trump and several of his cabinet appointees, affected the Board's decision, as did the emergence of strident nationalism worldwide.
From NPR
The minute hand on the Doomsday Clock ticked closer to midnight Wednesday, as the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists said they're seeing an increase in dangers to humanity, from climate change to nuclear warfare. The group took the "unprecedented" step of moving the clock 30 seconds closer to midnight, to leave it at two-and-a-half minutes away.
The setting is the closest the clock has come to midnight since 1953, when scientists moved it to two minutes from midnight after seeing both the U.S. and the Soviet Union test hydrogen bombs.
Here’s a little background on who The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists are:
The Bulletin was founded in 1945 by Manhattan Project scientists who “could not remain aloof to the consequences of their work.”
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The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists engages science leaders, policy makers, and the interested public on topics of nuclear weapons and disarmament, the changing energy landscape, climate change, and emerging technologies. We do this through our award winning journal, iconic Doomsday Clock, public access website and regular set of convenings.
The scientists gather occasionally to decide where to set the hands on the doomsday clock. Here are some of their decisions since 2000.
2002: IT IS 7 MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT.
… Meanwhile, the United States expresses a desire to design new nuclear weapons, with an emphasis on those able to destroy hardened and deeply buried targets. It also rejects a series of arms control treaties and announces it will withdraw from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.
2007: IT IS 5 MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT.
The United States and Russia remain ready to stage a nuclear attack within minutes, North Korea conducts a nuclear test, and many in the international community worry that Iran plans to acquire the Bomb. Climate change also presents a dire challenge to humanity. Damage to ecosystems is already taking place; flooding, destructive storms, increased drought, and polar ice melt are causing loss of life and property.
2010: IT IS 6 MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT.
… Talks between Washington and Moscow for a follow-on agreement to the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty are nearly complete, and more negotiations for further reductions in the U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenal are already planned. The dangers posed by climate change are growing, but there are pockets of progress….
2012: IT IS 5 MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT.
"The challenges to rid the world of nuclear weapons, harness nuclear power, and meet the nearly inexorable climate disruptions from global warming are complex and interconnected. In the face of such complex problems, it is difficult to see where the capacity lies to address these challenges."…
2015: IT IS 3 MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT.
"Unchecked climate change, global nuclear weapons modernizations, and outsized nuclear weapons 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. …
We now have a madman in the White House and the potential consequences are apocalyptic. We have a fascist GOP party that will risk nuclear or global warming disaster in order to get a tax cut, take away people’s health insurance, and be able to openly express their racism. This is the point where I express my permanent anger at the willfully ignorant who support fascism, the purist who pushed the “they’re all the same” lie and stayed home or voted 3rd party, and the lazy who couldn’t find the time to vote to prevent the cataclysmic threat we all now face.
Should we be scared? Damn right we should! Should we cower in the corner and pull our hair out? F#$%k no! Now is the time to fight! Now is the time to let our Democratic representatives know that we expect them to fight. Now is the time to let our Republican representatives know that we will not stand for their fascism.
In every crises there is opportunity. It’s going to be a hard, scary 4 years but if we stick together, stay focused on where the real threat is coming from, and organize so we can start turning things around in 2018, we may find we’ve just woken up an American public that will take back American democracy.
Resist!