Five Minutes to Midnight

Today the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists has moved their Doomsday Clock forward by 2 minutes to 5 before midnight -- or five minutes to Armageddon. Their statement starts like this:

“We stand at the brink of a second nuclear age. Not since the first atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki has the world faced such perilous choices. North Korea’s recent test of a nuclear weapon, Iran’s nuclear ambitions, a renewed U.S. emphasis on the military utility of nuclear weapons, the failure to adequately secure nuclear materials, and the continued presence of some 26,000 nuclear weapons in the United States and Russia are symptomatic of a larger failure to solve the problems posed by the most destructive technology on Earth.

As in past deliberations, we have examined other human-made threats to civilization. We have concluded that the dangers posed by climate change are nearly as dire as those posed by nuclear weapons. The effects may be less dramatic in the short term than the destruction that could be wrought by nuclear explosions, but over the next three to four decades climate change could cause drastic harm to the habitats upon which human societies depend for survival.

This deteriorating state of global affairs leads the Board of Directors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists--in consultation with a Board of Sponsors that includes 18 Nobel laureates--to move the minute hand of the “Doomsday Clock” from seven to five minutes to midnight.”

Sobering words indeed. As one of my colleagues put it, Weather of Mass Destruction joins Weapons of Mass Destruction as the big threats to the planet.

Later in their statement, the Board says:

“The international community faces a dilemma: How to mitigate climate change without increasing the dangers of nuclear materials proliferation.”

Actually there is no dilemma. It is not to late to turn back the clock, to combat climate change, phase out nuclear technology and eliminate the threat of nuclear proliferation. One key way to achieve all of this is through the use of renewable energy sources. The world needs an energy revolution, and that can only happen with a revolution in thinking. So the real question, perhaps the real dilemma, is whether our 'leaders', both governments and corporates, are up to it?

Shane