On 26 January, the Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists turned the minute hands of their Doomsday Clock thirty seconds closer to midnight. With this move, the scientists have symbolically declared that the world is 2.5 minutes away from total annihilation, their direst prediction since 1953 when the clock stood 2 minutes from midnight as the US announced their pursuit of the hydrogen bomb.
The arrival of Donald Trump to the White House is to blame for this change. The world is watching with anxiety as the most powerful office and the mightiest army on earth have fallen into the hands of a man who appears erratic, overly nationalistic and reckless. In his first days in office he has declared war on the press, signed an order to build a 10,000 mile wall to keep Mexicans out, and once again raised the spectre of electoral fraud in a nation that has long been praised as the champion of free and fair elections. He has also turned against his own intelligence agencies, declared his sympathy for the use of certain forms of torture, signed an order stopping Muslim refugees and immigrants from entering the US, and elevated cynicism to new levels by championing the spread of fake news and ‘alternative facts’.
Above all, experts refer to his comments about international security and the value and usefulness of nuclear weapons, as well as his denial of climate change and its impact on the planet and the future of mankind. That the world’s top economic and military power is taking steps to roll back the progress made in these areas cannot presage the coming of smooth and peaceful times. The following passage from the statement released by the Board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists sums up the situation:
