The bulletin of atomic scientists has changed time on its emblematic obligation clock this week for the first time since 2023, and, well, there may be decreasing yields at this stage. They set the clock to 89 seconds at midnight, a second closer than before. What does a second represent on a symbolic clock designed to warn people from existential threats to humanity? Who can say.
“Our fervent hope is that the leaders will recognize the existential situation of the world and will take daring measures to reduce the threats posed by nuclear weapons, climate change and the potential use of biological science and a variety of emerging technologies”. writes the science and security of the Board group group, which is responsible for assessing our collective proximity to the Apocalypse. It is the closest that the clock was ever at midnight – closer than in 1947 during its first disclosure (seven minutes), closer in 1953 when the United States and the Soviet Union began To test hydrogen bombs (two minutes), closer to 1984 when the bulletin claims that American-Soviet relations “reached their most here in decades” (three minutes), closer to 2007, when the Climate change was much clearer and that North Korea tested its own neck (five minutes).
It is starting to get a little hard to get a lot of meaning. The group put the hands of the clock at 90 seconds at midnight in 2023, which moved it for 10 seconds thanks largely to the invasion of Ukraine by Russia; The propagation of armed conflicts based on the State is certainly a level of mind for global risk assessors – last week, the framework of Haves de Davos identified it as the main risk facing the world this year. But the risks in the longer term as climate change do not quite have the same nuclear weapons of Damocles to them, as evidenced by the global incapacity continues to do a lot. I am not sure that there is a lot of rhetorical space between “we are 90 seconds from midnight” and “we are 89 seconds at midnight”-this second more stimulates a kind of particular action ?
To be fair, the bulletin does not claim a substantial difference, because it includes biological threats and disinformation, among others, with the nuclear and climatic risks that they have been highlighted for some time. “Because the world is already dangerously close to the precipice, a one -second decision should be considered an indication of an extreme danger and an undoubted warning that each second late in reversal increases the probability of disaster global, “they wrote. Okay, of course – although I think your hands could be equal in the predictable future, then. I guess you could get closer each year, marking us to extinction, as a kind of reprimand for these world failures in progress, but at some point you might be resolved. And looking around, it seems that this point has already passed.
