Doomsday Clock Ticks Closest To Midnight In Decades; Trump's 'Words Matter'

By Stephen Gossett in News on Jan 26, 2017 5:25PM

It is now two and a half minutes to midnight on the Doomsday Clock—in large part due to Donald Trump.

The iconic clock—a visual metaphor for the increasing potential of nuclear and climate catastrophe—was advanced on Thursday morning 30 seconds by the panel of scientists and political science experts that comprise Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. It's the closest the clock has been to midnight since the 1950s.

“Words matter, and President Trump has had plenty to say over the last year,” the board noted in a statement.

The clock had been at three minutes to midnight. The Bulletin did not change the clock setting in 2016. In 2015, the group's annual decision pushed the clock from five to three minutes to midnight, its highest setting since the Cold War era.

Thursday’s uptick was the first time the board ever changed the clock by 30 seconds. The decision “reflects a simple reality,” according to the board: “Donald Trump has been the U.S. president only a matter of days…” The board chastised the president for reckless comments about nuclear proliferation, tossing aside expert scientific advice and choosing unqualified nominees for key agency heads, such as the Energy Department and the Environmental Protection Agency.

The board said:

“This already-threatening world situation was the backdrop for a rise in strident nationalism worldwide in 2016, including in a US presidential campaign during which the eventual victor, Donald Trump, made disturbing comments about the use and proliferation of nuclear weapons and expressed disbelief in the overwhelming scientific consensus on climate change… Both his statements and his actions as President-elect have broken with historical precedent in unsettling ways. He has made ill-considered comments about expanding the US nuclear arsenal. He has shown a troubling propensity to discount or outright reject expert advice related to international security, including the conclusions of intelligence experts. And his nominees to head the Energy Department, and the Environmental Protection Agency dispute the basics of climate science. In short, even though he has just now taken office, the president’s intemperate statements, lack of openness to expert advice, and questionable cabinet nominations have already made a bad international security situation worse.”

Trump’s actions made a bad geopolitical landscape even worse, the board said, noting tensions between the United States and its NATO allies with Russia; hostile maneuvers on the Indian subcontinent; and continued nuclear tests in North Korea. Climate change was “somewhat less dismal,” as global carbon dioxide emissions remained level.

The clock was created in 1947 by a group of researchers set off the first controlled nuclear reaction, underneath the University of Chicago's Stagg Field bleachers in Hyde Park. Their work led to the development of the atomic bomb.

"Facts are stubborn things,and they must be taken into account if the future of humanity is to be preserved," physicist Lawrence Krauss said at the announcement.

“Wise public officials should act immediately, guiding humanity away from the brink,” the board warned on Thursday. “If they do not, wise citizens must step forward and lead the way.”

See also: Donald Trump, Nuclear Weapons & The Ominous Tick Of The Doomsday Clock