This is probably more for the geeks among us, but it’s damn terrifying, and everyone needs to know. It’s *really* something that needs to be known. What it tells us is that we are in a reality that the politicians in Washington need to pay attention to and smarten up. Of course, some of those politicians can barely read, and they wouldn’t pay attention to the news anyhow. From CNN:
At the dawn of the nuclear age, scientists created the Doomsday Clock as a symbolic representation of how close humanity is to destroying the world. On Tuesday, nearly eight decades later, the clock was set at 85 seconds to midnight — the closest the timepiece has ever been to midnight, according to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which established the clock in 1947. Midnight represents the moment at which people will have made Earth uninhabitable.
See what I mean? We are inching closer to midnight all the time, and the people who *need* to know won’t. It’s pretty much pointless to even try. Now, I think this is a US thing, but the rest of the world could use the information, too. But it also won’t. Yes, that’s horribly cynical. It’s DAMN, that’s getting closer to the point of no return.
Last year, the Bulletin set the clock at 89 seconds to midnight, which was, at that point, the closest the world had ever been to that hour. After setting the clock at 90 seconds to midnight in 2023 and 2024, the scientists made the 2025 change due to insufficient progress in combating or regulating global challenges, including nuclear risk, the climate crisis, biological threats, and advances in “disruptive technologies” such as artificial intelligence. Bulletin scientists also cited the spread of misinformation, disinformation, and conspiracy theories as other existential threats to humanity.
Why are only a few of us paying attention to this? Why isn’t it being screamed from rooftops all over the world? There is so much going wrong and not enough going right. Trump has sent the US back decades. DECADES, in one year. Now, fortunately, there *are* nations working on the right side, combating climate change, so that’s a positive. We’re just all about the negative. How the mighty we have fallen.
“Humanity has not made sufficient progress on the existential risks that endanger us all,” said Bulletin President and CEO Alexandra Bell of the reasoning for this year’s change. “The Doomsday Clock is a tool for communicating how close we are to destroying the world with technologies of our own making. The risks we face from nuclear weapons, climate change, and disruptive technologies are all growing. Every second counts, and we are running out of time. It is a hard truth, but this is our reality,” Bell said.
The last nuclear treaty between the US and Russia expires on February 4. Think about that for a bit. There will be no restraint anymore. It’s a pretty good bet that Russia will ramp up on February 5. Put this on top of all the other screwups, and things could go downhill really fast. Also, more countries are nuclear-capable now. That’s one thing piling on top of many, and will it break the camel’s back? 85 seconds to midnight. How the hell can we move it the other direction? (Much more is in the CNN article.)
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