RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – After two years set at two minutes to midnight, the Doomsday Clock was reset on Thursday, January 23rd, to only 100 seconds before the apocalypse. And for the first time, Brazil was mentioned as one of the culprits for this worsened projection.
The symbolic clock was created by the directors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (BAS) of the University of Chicago and, historically, it has measured the risk of a nuclear war, where midnight represents the planet’s destruction. However, it has also been weighing the effects of climate change since 2007.
The two minutes to midnight set in 2018 were, until now, the worst level ever recorded by the clock. In 1953 the device displayed the same mark after the United States and the Soviet Union tested their hydrogen bombs.
“Humankind continues to face two simultaneous existential risks – nuclear war and climate change – which are amplified by a multiplier of threats, the cyberwar of information, which undermines society’s ability to respond,” says the Bulletin’s communiqué.
Brazil was mentioned as the culprit on the environmental issue. “Last year, a number of countries worked to fight climate change, but others – including the US, which left the Paris Agreement, and Brazil, which dismantled policies that protected the Amazon rainforest – have taken several steps backward”, reads the statement.
The Bulletin further mentioned the failure of the United Nations climate conference in Madrid as evidence that the world is nearing its end, as well as the increase in greenhouse gas emissions and what they referred to as a string of extreme events, such as major fires “from the Arctic to Australia”.
Lastly, the team of scientists offered several suggestions on how to reverse the situation. In the nuclear area, they mention the return to negotiations of agreements, while in relation to the environment they suggest sticking to the Paris Agreements’ parameters, with the population demanding a change of stance from the Trump government.
In the field of technology, they stress the need to create international standards that penalize and discipline the use of science and information, risking the erosion of democracies.