Thanks to world leaders’ failures to adequately address the threats posed by nuclear weapons and the climate crisis—in spite of mounting public pressure for bold action on both fronts—the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists announced Thursday that the Doomsday Clock remains at two minutes to midnight, “the closest it has ever been to apocalypse.”
Welcome to 'The New Abnormal': Apocalypse Still Looms as Doomsday Clock Stays at 2 Minutes to Midnight
Founded in 1945 by developers of the atomic bomb, the Bulletin’s mission is to “equip the public, policymakers, and scientists with the information needed to demand, recognize, and support public policies that reduce manmade existential threats.”
Last year, citing inaction on the climate and nukes, the group moved the hands of its infamous Doomsday Clock forward a half-minute, signaling to the global community that it was at greater risk of experiencing utter catastrophe. In a statement on Thursday, Bulletin president and CEO Rachel Bronson welcomed the world to “the new abnormal.”
As Bronson put it:
This new abnormal is a pernicious and dangerous departure from the time when the United States sought a leadership role in designing and supporting global agreements that advanced a safer and healthier planet. The new abnormal describes a moment in which fact is becoming indistinguishable from fiction, undermining our very abilities to develop and apply solutions to the big problems of our time. The new abnormal risks emboldening autocrats and lulling citizens around the world into a dangerous sense of anomie and political paralysis.