ATOMIC SCIENTISTS DOOMSDAY CLOCK FULL

We’ve been asked to step outside of our bubbles. To remove ourselves from the cacophony of our echo chambers and engage in a dialogue with those whose opinions differ from ours. He shouts build the wall, a wall for which we will pay, while Flint, Michigan, still does not have safe drinking water, while the Standing Rock Sioux and the protesters who support them steel themselves to fight the Dakota Access pipeline. He shouts repeal and replace while he silences the environmental scientists who would save our planet by informing us of the destruction for which we bear great responsibility. He shouts bring jobs back as he places a freeze on federal jobs that will gut the ability to maintain and preserve our national parks. He distracts us all with swift executive orders that fulfill his campaign promises while waging war with the media a magician’s sleight of hand to keep our eyes diverted from the greater threats.

ATOMIC SCIENTISTS DOOMSDAY CLOCK FULL

Their full measure has yet to be realized. Yet despite the clear and present danger that President Trump presents, his actions are in their infancy. The days to come are all but guaranteed to provide us with more. He is not the gargantuan tentacled alien that destroys a major metropolitan city nor is he a being composed of pure energy capable of nuclear destruction.īut Trump's actions during his first week in office are evidence enough to make the comparison. While not the machination of a graphic novel villain, our country finds itself faced with the same kind of threat, embodied in the person of Donald Trump. Yet on the day of the Doomsday Clock’s change, the parallels are all the more chilling. Governments turn their weapons of mass destruction away from one another and point them towards a mutual enemy, knowing full well the monstrosity is capable of eliminating them all. One man orchestrates a plot that creates a common enemy, one that destroys the lives of millions, in order to unify the citizens of the planet against this horrific threat to save the lives of billions.Īnd through this deception, he is successful. The country has enemies on all sides and is consumed with the fear of nuclear war. The story takes place in an alternate Cold War America, though one not so different from our own. While the novel and its film adaptation vary somewhat in ending, there is a common theme. The Doomsday Clock now reads 11:57:30, the closest it’s been to midnight since 1953. Each chapter begins with the Doomsday Clock. I retrieved Alan Moore’s revolutionary graphic novel ' Watchmen' from my bookshelf. The Doomsday Clock now reads 11:57:30, the closest it’s been to midnight since 1953.Īs I counted the hours until the announcement, I was reminded of the first time I became aware of the clock’s existence. It’s been as far away as 17 minutes to midnight, coinciding with the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Every so many years, the bulletin reevaluates our condition and adjusts the hands accordingly. The closer the hands are to midnight, the closer we’re thought to be to our imminent demise. It was initially intended as a symbol of our steady march towards nuclear war, but its meaning has evolved to represent catastrophe wrought by climate change as well. The conceptual timepiece, originated by a group of scientists involved in the Manhattan project, made its debut in 1947 to serve as a visual representation of our proximity to global disaster. On Thursday, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists announced that they have moved up the hands of the Doomsday Clock to two and a half minutes to midnight. (Carolyn Kaster/AP) This article is more than 5 years old.

26, 2017, announcing that the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientist have moved the minute hand of the Doomsday Clock to two and a half minutes to midnight. Pictured: Lawrence Krauss, theoretical physicist, chair of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Board of Sponsors, left, and Thomas Pickering, co-chair of the International Crisis Group, display the Doomsday Clock during a news conference the at the National Press Club in Washington, Thursday, Jan. In organizing with those who share in our causes, writes John Vercher, we must begin to forge the bridges of commonality with those who do not.

Atomic scientists doomsday clock