On January 25, 2018, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists announced that the Doomsday Clock had ticked, and the time on the clock was now 2 minutes to midnight.It's possible you have heard the words "Doomsday Clock" before, but most are not sure exactly what it means or what the "minutes to midnight" part is all about.
It all started with the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. In 1945, with the Cold War beginning to brew and the international coverage of the destruction in Hiroshima and Nagasaki due to atomic weapons, the scientists from the Manhattan Project who had helped to create nuclear weapons felt that they had to warn people about the dangerous effects of what they had made. They began to publish a newsletter about the atomic state of the world.
In 1947, the Bulletin switched formats from a newsletter to a magazine, and the scientists knew they wanted to have a visual on the front cover to demonstrate the threat of nuclear destruction.Martyl Langsdorf, the wife of the Manhattan Project's Alexander Langsdorf, was recruited to design the cover of the magazine. Wanting to demonstrate the urgency she sensed from the Atomic Scientists, she decided to design clock hands ticking towards midnight, which was a symbol for the total nuclear destruction of the planet.
Martyl chose the time seven minutes til midnight arbitrarily, saying "it looked good to my eye", but both the scientists and the readers felt that it was a powerful image about the terrifying power of nuclear weapons.
Deciding that the image was a powerful visual, the Bulletin's first editor Eugene Rabinowitch originally reset the hands of the clock himself when he felt that there was a significant change in the threat of annihilation. During the 1950s, when the Cold War was at its strongest, he set the clock at 2 minutes to midnight to demonstrate the great possibility that the world was on the brink of nuclear war.
Rabinowitch continued to move the hands of the clock until his death in 1973. After that, the Science and Security Board on the Bulletin decided to take over the job. They currently meet twice a year to discuss global affairs and release a statement about the stability of the Earth if the hands are moved.
While the clock only monitored nuclear activity at first, it now includes climate change, biosecurity, and cyber warfare in its criteria.
As of January 25, the Bulletin has determined annihilation is as imminent as it was during the height of the Cold War, which is terrifying to those who follow the movement of the clock. Others believe that due to the amount it has fluctuated over the past 70 years, the Doomsday Clock is not really that reliable or factual, and is instead entirely political in nature.
Whether or not the Clock is reliable, something we can be sure about is that it has measured the levels of international nuclear tension since 1947. And by examining the ticking of the hand, we can get a sense of how imminent the world believed destruction to be during every era of the Cold War.
https://thebulletin.org/timeline
https://thebulletin.org/background-and-mission-1945-2018
http://www.wired.co.uk/article/what-is-the-doomsday-clock
https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/science/2018/01/25/doomsday-clock-ticks-closer-midnight/1064911001/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCnWPbn-ZKo
Great post Kenneth! I think it does a great job of not only explaining what the Doomsday Clock is, but also connecting it to both current events and the events we've learned in class. Did you know that currently, at two minutes from midnight, the Doomsday Clock is the closest it's ever been to midnight? The last time it came this close was in 1953 when both the US and Soviet Union created Hydrogen Bombs. However, while that year marked the creation of weapons of unprecedented destruction, not everything was hopeless since that same year marked the end of the Korean War and the unveiling of Eisenhower's Atoms for Peace Program, which tried to used nuclear energy for things other than weapons, such as supporting research and agriculture. So while there was hope that things would get better back in 1953, things look a lot more gloomy now, since the current escalation seems to have no end in sight- something I find really concerning.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/25/world/americas/doomsday-clock-nuclear-scientists.html
I really enjoyed your article as I gained a deeper understanding of what the Doomsday Clock actually is. While it may seem like an arbitrary evaluation of the current world, it seems to have a history behind it that explains the mindset of the past. I was amazed to see that one of the main reasons why we are 2 minutes from midnight currently is for the same reason the clock was first created : nuclear weapons. You would think that after leaving the Cold War behind and being such a modern society, this would no longer be our fear. Instead, nuclear war is even more imminent and the dangers of the past are the same as the present.
ReplyDeleteSOURCE : https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2018/01/25/after-a-missile-scare-and-insult-war-with-north-korea-its-time-to-check-the-doomsday-clock/?utm_term=.bedb6f4aa253
Kenneth, I learned something new when reading your article. Previously I had only faintly remembered something about the Doomsday Clock, but your article shed light on its history and significance, and that was really powerful to me. Like the others who commented I was interested in seeing why the clock was so close to midnight this year, and the unavoidable truth is that communications between the world's leaders are falling apart. This is due,in no small part, to Trump's taking of office more than a year ago. In response to your statement of the credibility of the clock, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists is more than qualified to make the predictions that they do. Also, it is just a prediction after all, not a political statement or critique. They are merely evaluating the current state of affairs and giving their opinion on the potential of disaster based on those observations. Nuclear war is the method that can lead to the quickest destruction of humanity for sure, but climate change is rightly included due to the extent of the impact it will surely have in the future if left unchecked. These are just some thoughts and restatements of information I found while researching. I hope it broadens the discussion.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/science/2018/01/25/doomsday-clock-ticks-closer-midnight/1064911001/