Doomsday Clock – The World is on the brink of disaster according to the famed Doomsday clock run by the non profit organisation: Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. The New Year for 2022 has begun, but there is little good news to share with the world, unless we start to take decisive action.
Currently the Doomsday clock is sitting on 100 seconds to Midnight, a catastrophic number that tells us just how close to doom humanity currently loiters. This is the closest it has ever been to midnight and the clock hasn’t moved since 2020, sounding a continued warning to the world.
With global warming leading the dangers, there are unfortunately multiple catastrophic possibilities for our species at this stage in our evolution.
Global hunger, nuclear war, a rapidly heating climate, depleting food stocks, reduced fertility on land, plastic infiltration throughout our water systems including the oceans and seas, species goes extinct at a pace never seen before, rising water levels, pollution and on and on.
Sadly, there is no quick cure and no end to the litany of issues facing our survival. One positive is that most of the issues are self inflicted through our own short sightedness and greed, but that also means that we can stop doing those actions and start reversing the impacts of our actions.
Started in 1947, the Doomsday clock tracks a range of risks and problems facing humanity around the world, and depicts our likelihood of self destruction.
Incredibly, every single existential problem on planet Earth is fully within our own control, and yet here we sit as a species, doing very little to curb our own extinction. The time for action is right now. Start immediately even if you just start small, every small step we take away from the brink, increases our chances.
As the Doomsday clock website puts it:
Leaders around the world must immediately commit themselves to renewed cooperation in the many ways and venues available for reducing existential risk. Citizens of the world can and should organize to demand that their leaders do so—and quickly. The doorstep of doom is no place to loiter.
Unfortunately, the clock continues to inch closer to midnight, with little or no action being taken by humanity on a global scale. Time is running out for us as a species. Nuclear war is no longer the greatest risk to our survival, now we face the very real threat of global warming and wiping out critical species in our food chain, which could result in a domino effect.
We have no idea if the damage is already too extensive for our eco systems to recover fully, but scientists are warning that in terms of our own survival, we have a very limited window of opportunity to work together to curb the increase in heating on our planet.
Tensions around the world are growing, and conflicts are possible. We must do everything we can including urging our leaders to use diplomacy not war, take action against global warming as individuals, countries and globally.
We need to curb our emissions, increase education levels around the world to better control population growth. We need to eat less meat, recycle, reuse and rehome much more, put an end to using plastic altogether and divest from fossil fuels.
The Doomsday clock is a great metaphor, and a visual cue to the dire nature of our progress. It is a logo representation of the dangers we pose to ourselves and to other species upon our planet and a reminder that our own ingenuity is a double edged sword that can help us solve problems, not just create them.
Only together can we take steps to push the hands of the Doomsday clock back away from our own self destruction.
If you would like more information about the Doomsday clock, how it works or what actions you can take to help, please visit the official site for the Doomsday Clock.
