INLSA
FILE PICTURE: New years eve celebrations in and around Johannesburg. A giant electronic countdown clock for new years eve 2012 was displayed on a building in downtown Johannesburg.Picture: Antoine de Ras, 31/12/2011
Jason Ukman
By at least one measure, the world has crept closer to apocalypse.
The Doomsday Clock, a figurative timepiece used as a barometer of humankind’s fate, was moved one minute closer to midnight on Tuesday, the first time it had been nudged forward since 2007. It is now 11.55, five minutes before the appointed hour.
The resetting of the clock has become something of a gimmick in recent years. It is carried out by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, a group established to raise awareness about the perils of nuclear weaponry, and is aimed at warning the public about various catastrophic dangers.
But the process involved in deciding the time is a deeply serious one, overseen by a venerable board of scientists, Nobel laureates and others; and it is concluded with a symposium in Washington.
The setting of the clock is no longer based only on the proliferation of nuclear arms, but also on threats such as climate change and biological weaponry.
In moving the clock ahead on Tuesday, the group cited the failure of world leaders to achieve significant progress on the reduction of nuclear weapons and in developing a comprehensive response to climate change.
Just two years ago, after global talks on climate change in Copenhagen as well as international pledges to reduce nuclear stockpiles, the clock was moved backwards by a minute.
“Faced with clear and present dangers of nuclear proliferation and climate change, and the need to find sustainable and safe sources of energy, world leaders are failing to change business, as usual,” said Lawrence Krauss, co-chairman of the group’s board of sponsors.
“As we see it,” Krauss said, “the major challenge at the heart of humanity’s survival in the 21st century is how to meet energy needs for economic growth in developing and industrial countries without further damaging the climate… and without risking further spread of nuclear weapons – and, in fact, setting the stage for global reductions.”
Since being unveiled in 1947, the clock has been reset 20 times. It came closest to doomsday in 1953, when the start of the nuclear arms race pushed its hand to two minutes to midnight, and moved the furthest away in 1991, when the signing of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (Start) by the US and the Soviet Union gave the world 17 minutes until midnight.
Despite the passage of various non-proliferation treaties, including the new Start treaty under US President Barack Obama’s administration, the US and Russia remain the chief reasons for concern when it comes to nuclear weaponry, according to Kennette Benedict, the group’s executive director.
The US and other major powers have not yet ratified the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.
There has also been little progress on a treaty that would prohibit further production of fissile material for nuclear weapons.
“Overall, there’s just really no new thinking,” Benedict said.
But not all news was bad over the past year.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists members said they were heartened by the Arab Spring, the occupy movements and political protest in Russia.
Those developments, said Benedict, “indicated that people are waking up and want to have a say in their future”. – Washington Post-Bloomberg
