Humans may be one step closer to destroying the world, or at least that's what scientists behind the Doomsday Clock think. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is a nonprofit organization dedicated to tracking human-made threats to the environment. Scientists predicted we were at a metaphorical 7 minutes to midnight in 1947. The Doomsday Clock's minute hand has been reset 26 times since then. In 2025, scientists predict we are 89 seconds from midnight.For my reaction, I'm repeating what I wrote in Company Man asks 'The Decline of Red Lobster...What Happened?' A tale of the Retail Apocalypse.
I often write that Inside Edition is not the hardest news source, but the flip side of that is that it humanizes its stories and presents them in accessible and entertaining ways. This report served as a good example of all that.This is probably the grimmest video from Inside Edition I've ever embedded here and it still served as a good example of my assessment of the program.
TIME presented the core of the announcement essentially uncut in The Doomsday Clock Just Moved Closer to Midnight.
The Doomsday Clock was set to 89 seconds to midnight, the closest to midnight ever in its 78-year history. It’s the duty of the United States, China, and Russia to lead the world back from the brink. Humanity’s continuing existence depends on immediate action from the world’s leaders.I agree with the assessment, but good luck getting the horse loose in the hospital to do something useful about any of it. He thinks climate change is a hoax, renewable energy is a fraud, misinformation is the real news, and AI should be encouraged, not regulated. Good leadership on those issues will have to come from someone else.
I close with A history of the Doomsday Clock in 4 minutes from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
“It seemed the right time on the page ... it suited my eye.” That’s how Martyl Langsdorf responded when asked why the hands of the Doomsday Clock were placed at seven minutes to midnight back in 1947. Martyl, an artist married to a Manhattan Project engineer, was hired to design the Bulletin’s first magazine cover, which needed to convey scientists’ increasing concern about the management of nuclear weapons. Ultimately, she settled on a clock ticking toward midnight, intended as a metaphor for humanity’s proximity to nuclear apocalypse.And it's now one second closer.
It would later become one of the world’s most recognizable symbols, observed closely by policymakers, scientists, and artists alike.
It’s fitting that in a male-dominated nuclear industry filled with the 20th century’s greatest minds, a female artist created the symbol that would elegantly communicate their concerns clearly to the public. Over its more than 75-year history, the clock continues to inspire films, books, musicians, and beyond.
In all, the clock has moved 25 times. In more recent years, the clock has moved in response to a variety of diplomatic and political events, negotiations over nuclear weapons, inaction on climate change, technological advancements, and biological weapon experimentation. In 2023, the clock was moved to 90 seconds to midnight, the closest to disaster it has ever been, reflecting increased concern over humanity’s response to its greatest threats.
Stay tuned for the final post of January 2025.
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