Doomsday Clock

For the Smashing Pumpkins song, see Doomsday Clock (song).
"Minutes to Midnight" redirects here. For other uses, see Minutes to Midnight (disambiguation).
Cover of the 1947 Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists issue that first featured the Doomsday Clock at seven minutes to midnight (23:53), although it appears to be eight minutes to midnight (23:52).

The Doomsday Clock is a symbolic clock face, representing a countdown to possible global catastrophe (e.g. nuclear war or climate change). It has been maintained since 1947 by the members of the Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists,[1] who are in turn advised by the Governing Board and the Board of Sponsors, including 18 Nobel Laureates. The closer they set the Clock to midnight, the closer the scientists believe the world is to global disaster.

Originally, the Clock, which hangs on a wall in the Bulletin's office in the University of Chicago,[2] represented an analogy for the threat of global nuclear war; however, since 2007 it has also reflected climate change[3] and new developments in the life sciences and technology that could inflict irrevocable harm to humanity.[4] The most recent officially announced setting—three minutes to midnight (23:57)—was made in January 2015 due to "[un]checked climate change, global nuclear weapons modernizations, and outsized nuclear weapons arsenals".[5] This setting was retained in January 2016.[6]

History

The origin of the Clock can be traced to the international group of researchers called the Chicago Atomic Scientists who had participated in the Manhattan Project.[2] After the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, they started to publish a mimeographed newsletter and then a bulletin. Since its inception, the Clock has been depicted on every cover of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Its first representation was in 1947, when bulletin co-founder Hyman Goldsmith asked artist Martyl Langsdorf (wife of Manhattan Project research associate and Szilárd petition signatory Alexander Langsdorf, Jr.) to design a cover for the magazine's June 1947 issue. As Eugene Rabinowitch, another co-founder of the Bulletin, explained later,

The Bulletin's clock is not a gauge to register the ups and downs of the international power struggle; it is intended to reflect basic changes in the level of continuous danger in which mankind lives in the nuclear age...[7]

In January 2007, designer Michael Bierut, who was on the Bulletin's Governing Board, redesigned the Clock to give it a more modern feel. In 2009, the Bulletin ceased its print edition and was one of the first print publications in the US to become entirely digital; the Clock is now found as part of the logo on the Bulletin's website. Information about the Doomsday Clock Symposium,[8] a timeline of the Clock's settings,[5] and multimedia shows about the Clock's history and culture[9] can also be found on the Bulletin's website.

The 5th Doomsday Clock Symposium[8] was held on November 14, 2013 in Washington, D.C.; it was a daylong event that was open to the public and featured panelists discussing various issues on the topic "Communicating Catastrophe." There was also an evening event at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in conjunction with the Hirshhorn's current exhibit, "Damage Control: Art and Destruction Since 1950."[10] The panel discussions, held at the American Association for the Advancement of Science, were streamed live from the Bulletin's website, and can still be viewed there.[11] Reflecting international events dangerous to humankind, the Clock's hands have been adjusted twenty one times since its inception in 1947,[12] when the Clock was initially set to seven minutes to midnight (23:53).

Symbolic timepiece changes

In 1947, during the Cold War, the Clock was started at seven minutes to midnight and was subsequently advanced or rewound per the state of the world and nuclear war prospects. The Clock's setting is decided by the Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and is an adjunct to the essays in the Bulletin on global affairs. The Clock is not set and reset in real time as events occur; rather than respond to each and every crisis as it happens, the Science and Security Board meets twice annually to discuss global events in a deliberative manner. The closest nuclear war threat, the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, reached crisis, climax, and resolution before the Clock could be set to reflect that possible doomsday.

Doomsday Clock graph, 1947-2015. The lower points on the graph represent a higher probability of technologically or environmentally-induced catastrophe, and the higher points represent a lower probability.
Timeline of the Doomsday Clock[5]
Year Time Minutes to midnight Change Reason
1947 23:53 7  — The initial setting of the Doomsday Clock.
1949 23:57 3 -4 The Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb, officially starting the nuclear arms race.
1953 23:58 2 -1 The United States and the Soviet Union test thermonuclear devices within nine months of one another. (This is the clock's closest approach to midnight since its inception.)
1960 23:53 7 +5 In response to a perception of increased scientific cooperation and public understanding of the dangers of nuclear weapons (as well as political actions taken to avoid "massive retaliation") the United States and Soviet Union cooperate and avoid direct confrontation in regional conflicts such as the 1956 Suez Crisis. Scientists from different countries help establish the International Geophysical Year, a series of coordinated, worldwide scientific observations between nations allied with both the United States and the Soviet Union, and the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, which allow Soviet and American scientists to interact.
1963 23:48 12 +5 The United States and Soviet Union sign the Partial Test Ban Treaty, limiting atmospheric nuclear testing.
1968 23:53 7 -5 Regional wars wage: the Vietnam War intensifies, the Six-Day War occurs in 1967 and the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 takes place. Worse yet, France and China, two nations which have not signed the Partial Test Ban Treaty, acquire and test nuclear weapons (the 1960 Gerboise Bleue nuclear test and 1964 596 nuclear test, respectively) to assert themselves as global players in the nuclear arms race.
1969 23:50 10 +3 Every nation in the world, with the notable exceptions of India, Pakistan, and Israel, signs the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
1972 23:48 12 +2 The United States and the Soviet Union sign the SALT I (Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty) and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.
1974 23:51 9 -3 India tests a nuclear device (Smiling Buddha), and SALT II talks stall. Both the United States and the Soviet Union modernize MIRVs.
1980 23:53 7 -2 Unforeseeable end to deadlock in American–Soviet talks as Soviet war in Afghanistan proceeds. As a result of the war, the U.S. Senate refuses to ratify the SALT II agreement between both nations and President Jimmy Carter withdraws the United States from the 1980 Summer Olympic Games in Moscow. Carter administration considers ways in which the United States could win a nuclear war.
1981 23:56 4 -3 The clock is adjusted in early 1981.[13] The Soviet war in Afghanistan toughens the U.S. nuclear posture. Ronald Reagan becomes president, scraps further arms reduction talks with the Soviet Union and argues that the only way to end the Cold War is to win it. Tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union contributes to the danger of the nuclear annihilation.
1984 23:57 3 -1 Further escalation of the tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union. The clock is adjusted in December 1983 since the ongoing Afghanistan war heats up the Cold War. U.S. Pershing II medium-range ballistic missile and cruise missiles are deployed in Western Europe.[13] Ronald Reagan pushes to win the Cold War by intensifying the arms race between the superpowers. The Soviet Union and its allies (except Romania) boycott the Olympic Games in Los Angeles as a response to the American led boycott in 1980.
1988 23:54 6 +3 In December 1987, the Clock is moved back as the United States and the Soviet Union sign treaty to eliminate intermediate-range nuclear missiles, and their relations improve.[14]
1990 23:50 10 +4 The Fall of the Berlin Wall and the Iron Curtain, along with the unification of Germany, mean that the Cold War is nearing its end.
1991 23:43 17 +7 The United States and Soviet Union sign the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, and the Soviet Union is dissolved on December 26. (This is the furthest from midnight the clock has been since its inception.)
1995 23:46 14 -3 Global military spending continues at Cold War levels amid concerns about post-Soviet nuclear proliferation of weapons and brainpower.
1998 23:51 9 -5 Both India (Pokhran-II) and Pakistan (Chagai-I) test nuclear weapons in a tit-for-tat show of aggression; the United States and Russia run into difficulties in further reducing stockpiles.
2002 23:53 7 -2 Little progress on global nuclear disarmament. United States rejects a series of arms control treaties and announces its intentions to withdraw from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty amid concerns about the possibility of a nuclear terrorist attack due to the amount of weapon-grade nuclear materials that are unsecured and unaccounted for worldwide.
2007 23:55 5 -2 North Korea tests a nuclear weapon in October 2006,[15] Iran's nuclear ambitions, a renewed American 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.[16] After assessing the dangers posed to civilization, climate change was added to the prospect of nuclear annihilation as the greatest threats to humankind.[17]
2010 23:54 6 +1 Worldwide cooperation to reduce nuclear arsenals and limit effect of climate change.[5] New START agreement is ratified by both the United States and Russia and more negotiations for further reductions in the American and Russian nuclear arsenal are already planned. 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark results in the developing and industrialized countries agreeing to take responsibility for carbon emissions and to limit global temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius.
2012 23:55 5 -1 Lack of global political action to address global climate change, nuclear weapons stockpiles, the potential for regional nuclear conflict, and nuclear power safety.[18]
2015 23:57 3 -2 Concerns amid continued lack of global political action to address global climate change, the modernization of nuclear weapons in the United States and Russia, and the problem of nuclear waste.[19]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Science and Security Board Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
  2. 1 2 Doomsday Clock moving closer to midnight? The Spokesman-Review, October 16, 2006.
  3. ↑ Stover, Dawn. "How Many Hiroshimas Does it Take to Describe Climate Change?". Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Retrieved September 26, 2013.
  4. ↑ "'Doomsday Clock' Moves Two Minutes Closer To Midnight". Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Retrieved 2013-06-29.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Timeline "Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists".
  6. ↑ It is still three minutes to midnight "Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists"
  7. ↑ The Doomsday Clock. The Southeast Missourian, February 22, 1984.
  8. 1 2 "Doomsday Clock Symposium". Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Retrieved September 10, 2013.
  9. ↑ "A Timeline of Conflict, Culture, and Change". Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Retrieved June 20, 2013.
  10. ↑ "Damage Control: Art and Destruction Since 1950". Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.
  11. ↑ "5th Doomsday Clock Symposium". Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Retrieved September 14, 2013.
  12. ↑ "Doomsday Clock ticks closer to midnight". Washington Post. 2012-01-10. Retrieved 2012-01-10.
  13. 1 2 Doomsday Clock at 3'til midnight. The Daily News, December 21, 1983.
  14. ↑ Hands of the "Doomsday Clock" turned back three minutes. The Reading Eagle, December 17, 1987.
  15. ↑ "The North Korean nuclear test". Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. 2009. Retrieved 2009-08-04.
  16. ↑ ""Doomsday Clock" Moves Two Minutes Closer To Midnight". The Bulletin. The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. 17 January 2007. Retrieved 6 April 2015.
  17. ↑ "Nukes, climate push 'Doomsday Clock' forward". MSNBC. 2012-01-15. Retrieved 2012-01-15.
  18. ↑ "Doomsday Clock moves to five minutes to midnight". Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Retrieved 2013-06-29.
  19. ↑ Casey, Michael (22 January 2015). "Doomsday Clock moves two minutes closer to midnight". CBS News. Retrieved 23 January 2015.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Doomsday Clock.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Thursday, April 28, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.