The doomsday clock is approaching midnight in the middle of

The doomsday clock is approaching midnight in the middle of the Ukraine war – DW (German)

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists on Tuesday set its symbolic “doomsday clock” closer to midnight than ever before, noting that the threat of nuclear war, disease and climate variability had been exacerbated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The time on the clock has been moved 90 seconds to midnight for 2023. Midnight is said to symbolize the end of mankind.

The time change comes after three years aided by the COVID pandemic, with a previous record of 100 seconds before midnight.

The group said it was bringing the time closer to midnight “mainly, but not exclusively, due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the increased risk of a nuclear escalation.”

Why is the “doomsday clock” getting closer to midnight?

Rachel Bronson, President and CEO of the Bulletin, said at a news conference in Washington on Tuesday: “Russia’s thinly veiled threats to use nuclear weapons are a reminder to the world that the escalation of the conflict – by accident, design or misjudgment – poses a terrible risk Probability that the conflict could slip out of anyone’s control remains high.”

The group, whose roots can be traced back to the design and use of the first nuclear weapons, also said fighting over the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant and the exclusion zone around the decommissioned Chernobyl meltdown compounded nuclear risks.

Explosions rock Zaporizhia nuclear power plant

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Bronson said the group’s announcement will also be translated into Russian and Ukrainian for the first time to attract relevant attention.

She added that moving the clock closer than ever to midnight “is a decision we don’t take lightly” and is a reflection of how “we live in a time of unprecedented peril.”

She called on Western countries and Ukraine to redouble their efforts to reach a negotiated settlement.

“The US government, its NATO allies and Ukraine have a variety of channels for dialogue; we urge leaders to use them all as much as possible to turn back the clock,” Bronson said.

What is the doomsday clock?

The Bulletin describes its watch as a “metaphor for how close humanity is to self-annihilation,” moving it forward or backward based on perceptions of changing global threat levels.

In 1945, Albert Einstein, J. Robert Oppenheimer, and other scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project and the first atomic weapons founded the Bulletin, a non-profit organization based in Chicago. The idea of ​​the doomsday clock followed in 1947.

The clock was originally set for seven minutes to midnight. The furthest from midnight was in 1991, after the end of the Cold War, when the Soviet Union was falling apart, when it was set at 17 minutes to midnight.

The watch was also featured heavily in the graphic novel and later the film Watchmen, giving it increasing notoriety.

A group of nuclear and climate scientists and other experts, including 13 Nobel Prize winners, discuss world events to decide when to set the clock each year.

In this handout photo provided by Hastings Group Media on January 24, 2023, members of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists unveil the doomsday clock during an announcement in Washington, DC.Senior members of the Atomic Scientists Group Bulletin unveiled the new time in Washington on TuesdayImage: Hastings Group Media/AFP

Chemical weapons threats, coal revival and other factors related to Ukraine

Bronson also pointed to a potential risk of using biological weapons in the war in Ukraine on Tuesday.

“The ongoing stream of disinformation about bioweapons laboratories in Ukraine raises concerns that Russia itself is considering using such weapons,” she said.

Sivan Kartha, Bulletin board member and scientist at the Stockholm Environment Institute, said climate risks are also becoming more visible and are being fueled by the increasing use of coal for power generation as countries look for alternatives to Russian natural gas.

“Global carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels, after recovering from the economic decline of COVID to an all-time high in 2021, continue to rise in 2022 and hit another record high,” Kartha said. “If emissions continue to rise, the extreme weather will continue and was even more clearly attributable to climate change.”

As one such example, she pointed to the 2022 floods in Pakistan.

The forgotten victims of the floods in Pakistan

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Call for G7 negotiations on nuclear disarmament

Noting the clock shift, former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged world leaders to take action.

“Leaders have failed to heed the warnings of the Doomsday Clock in 2020,” Ban said. “We all continue to pay the price. In 2023 it is important for all of us that they act.”

The international campaign to abolish nuclear weapons, which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, also noticed the shift in the clock.

“We are fed up with inaction following Doomsday Clock warnings,” ICAN Chief Executive Beatrice Fihn said in a statement. “The leaders of the nuclear-armed states urgently need to negotiate nuclear disarmament, and the G7 meeting in Hiroshima in May 2023 is the perfect place to outline such a plan.”

Hiroshima was the first Japanese city to be hit by a US atomic bomb on August 6, 1945, a few days before Nagasaki.

These two attacks led to the surrender of Japan and the end of fighting on the final front of World War II in Asia, but also to the creation of the Bulletin and the nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union during the later Cold War.

ICAN receives Nobel Peace Prize

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msh/ar (AFP, Portal)