11/18/2023 0 Comments Set clock to nuclear time clockThe Doomsday Clock has a similar problem. At that point, will all of those “12 year” warnings feel like crying wolf? When 2030 (the most popular “ climate deadline”) rolls around, my guess is that we’ll still be spewing some carbon dioxide into the atmosphere - and, hopefully, human civilization will still be standing. And then there’s the problem of what happens when the allegedly catastrophic moment actually arrives. Research shows that most people can only handle so much fear, devastation, and “the world is ending!” messaging before they tune out. But dangling the apocalypse in front of the public over and over comes with a downside. If you hear the world is ending in a little over a decade, you might be motivated to protest in the streets against human extinction, or skip school to stage a sit-in. The intentions here are good: Deadlines can motivate people to get things done quickly, as every college student (and journalist) knows. ![]() There’s even a giant digital clock in Union Square counting down the hours, minutes, and seconds until we have to totally stop burning fossil fuels - or face the consequences. In 2018, after the release of a landmark United Nations report on the overheating planet, Greta Thunberg began saying that humanity only had “ 12 years” to halt the destruction of global warming. The year 2000 was going to cause large-scale electricity blackouts and computer failures in a Y2K apocalypse - and then it didn’t, thanks to the hard work of many computer programmers behind the scenes.Ĭlimate activists have their own set of deadlines and apocalyptic predictions. ![]() The world was going to end in 2012, based on a popular misreading of the Mayan calendar - and then it didn’t. The problem is that there are a lot of these apocalyptic countdowns, and after a while, they all start to feel like background noise. It has since been set backward eight times and forward 16 times for a total of 24, the farthest from midnight being 17 minutes in 1991, and the nearest being 90 seconds in 2023.ĭon’t miss out on ET Prime stories! Get your daily dose of business updates on WhatsApp.To support our nonprofit environmental journalism, please consider disabling your ad-blocker to allow ads on Grist. The clock's original setting in 1947 was seven minutes to midnight. The main factors influencing the clock are nuclear risk and climate change. A hypothetical global catastrophe is represented by midnight on the clock, with the Bulletin's opinion on how close the world is to one represented by a certain number of minutes or seconds to midnight, assessed in January of each year. ![]() Maintained since 1947, the clock is a metaphor for threats to humanity from unchecked scientific and technological advances. Today they are even closer to midnight, showing how much more perilous our world has become in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, extreme weather events and Russia's outrageous war on Ukraine." Leaders need a crisis mindset."īan Ki-moon, Deputy Chair of The Elders and former Secretary-General of the United Nations, said, "Three years ago, I helped unveil the Doomsday Clock when its hands were last moved. We are facing multiple, existential crises. From cutting carbon emissions to strengthening arms control treaties and investing in pandemic preparedness, we know what needs to be done But our leaders are not acting at sufficient speed or scale to secure a peaceful and liveable planet. Mary Robinson, Chair of The Elders and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said, "The Doomsday Clock is sounding an alarm for the whole of humanity.
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