Upon election, sales of dystopian novels soared. Americans are turning to 1984, Fahrenheit 451, and A Handmaid's Tale for a sign and perhaps comfort, or something to relate to. Just last Friday, Republican Sen. John McCain spoke at the Munich Security Conference at the uncertainty of the West in the time of Trump. He spoke of the dangerous rise of nationalism, the fracturing of global relationships, and the need to separate the truth from lies. A speech so hyperbolic and so reminiscent of a Cold War era America was something no one could have expected for 2017. In a time where other Republican members of Congress fumble to find their consciences and fiddle while Rome burns, McCain vocalizes the concerns of the American people and the rest of the Western world with the new administration. The speech has already been widely spread across social media, and rightly so. But The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists voiced their concerns much earlier, in a way that slipped alarmingly under the radar of the media.
Alarmists, scientists, and fans of the show Madam Secretary, should be familiar with the "Doomsday Clock"; a gauge for world tensions and vulnerability to catastrophe that counts down to nuclear holocaust (which Trump seems to have recently understood the severity of, according to his solo press conference) and general apocalypse. Founded in 1945 by University of Chicago scientists who had helped develop the first atomic weapons in the Manhattan Project, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists created the infamous clock. The decision to move (or not to move) the minute hand of the Doomsday Clock is made every year by the Bulletin’s Science and Security Board in consultation with its Board of Sponsors, which includes 15 Nobel laureates.
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For the first time in it's 70 year history, the clock has moved for one reason, or should I say one man: Donald Trump. The Bulletin sites nuclear weapons, climate change, and basically President Trump's entire campaign as a reason for the historic move. The full statement is available here. It is also the first time the clock has ever moved in an increment of 30 seconds. For the past two years the clock has remained at three minutes until midnight, the closest it had been since the arms race of the 1980's. Nuclear proliferation and the looming threat climate change were the main reasons for the time ticking down previously, now the Bulletin has to concern themselves with a trigger-happy toddler tweeting the nuclear codes and/or declaring war against Australia. Their statement puts it a bit more eloquently: "...even though he has just now taken office, the president’s intemperate statements, lack of openness to expert advice, and questionable cabinet nominations have already made a bad international security situation worse.”
The clock began at seven minutes to midnight in 1947, and eventually inched its way to the closest it has ever been to catastrophe in 1953 at two minutes to midnight. Their press release read: "After much debate, the United States decides to pursue the hydrogen bomb, a weapon far more powerful than any atomic bomb. In October 1952, the United States tests its first thermonuclear device, obliterating a Pacific Ocean islet in the process; nine months later, the Soviets test an H-bomb of their own. "The hands of the Clock of Doom have moved again," the Bulletin announces. "Only a few more swings of the pendulum, and, from Moscow to Chicago, atomic explosions will strike midnight for Western civilization."
The farthest the clock has ever been was 17 minutes in 1991, citing the end of the Cold War era and the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty as global appeasing forces.
I would love to end this on a light note, but there's not much we can do to directly impact the clock. We can't exactly start a grassroots United Nations, but we can call our representatives and our senators to declare our support for peaceful policies, the reduction of nuclear weapons testing, and environmentally friendly policy. Here's a step by step guide on contacting your elected officials.
If we somehow brought ourselves back from two minutes to devastation at our most tense period with Russia and the height of nuclear proliferation, we can surely bounce back from two-and-a-half minutes. Don't go building bunkers and throwing apocalypse parties just yet, we still have work to do.
