WILL DOOMSDAY CLOCK MOVE CLOSER TO MIDNIGHT?
PEOPLE FOR NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT
HUMAN SURVIVAL PROJECT
PNND AUSTRALIA
At 10am 27 Jan US Eastern Time, which works out at 2am Sydney time, the iconic Doomsday Clock is to be re-set.
The re-set ceremony, conducted with due solemnity by the worlds most distinguished nuclear policy experts and by nobel prizewinning physicists, can be watched live at 2am on
https://thebulletin.org/doomsday-clock/
The clock is currently set at a metaphorical 89 seconds to 'midnight', where 'midnight' represents the greatest catastrophe that can possibly happen to the planet and civilisation, namely the use of a number of thousands of nuclear warheads, with the subsequent deaths of a number of billions (Billions not millions) of humans within approximately 90min-2 hours, and of a somewhat larger number from starvation and cold in the ensuing decades of nuclear winter.
As few as five rather small nuclear warheads exploded in space above continental landmasses would be enough to end hi-tech civilisation via the creation of electromagnetic pulse that would make every screen go blank. The use of large portions of the US and Russian nuclear arsenals would end civilisation and bring about the deaths of most humans.
While Australia would be one of the 'better' (= less bad) places to be, US installations such as Pine Gap and NW cape are targeted, as are naval bases. Sydney is a likely target.
The Australian Government has shown absolutely no concern over a geopolitical situation that is not only becoming more and more threatening, but over leaderships (Trump and Putin) that are becoming, seemingly, more and more crazy and less and less predictable and rational.
The factors that impelled the curators of the clock to shift it forward to 90 seconds then to 89 seconds to 'midnight', have if anything, grown worse not better. The prospects for arms control negotiations between the US and Russia are more remote than ever, while threats by Russia to vaporise the UK, Germany, and France are now a regular feature. These threats are in turn attracting escalatory responses such as the movement of US subs 'closer to Russia' from Trump. The prospects of careful and finely calibrated diplomacy of the kind that on both sides ended the Cuban Missile Crisis are zero – the parties concerned don’t do that kind of diplomacy.
The Australian government should be asking itself what it can do in the immediate term to limit and reduce the risk to Australians, and in the medium term to help to reduce global nuclear risk via commonsense nuclear risk reduction measures. Instead it is burying its head in the sand and doing nothing. The Coalition is of course, worse.
Tonights Doomsday Clock reset will give the world a real insight into how dire matters are. But whether or not it moves forward, Australia needs to remove its head from the sand, stop pretending the movie is 'don’t look up', sign and ratify the TPNW (Ban Treaty) as per its own policies, and give its strong diplomatic support to commonsense risk reduction measures such as No First Use. Even this close to midnight there is still time.
John Hallam
PND/Human Survival Project Nuclear Disarmament Campaigner
PNND Australia Convenor
Co-Convenor, Abolition 2000 Nuclear Risk Reduction Group
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