BBC Knowledge June 2017

| STATE OF THE WORLD

CONCEPT

IN FOCUS

THE DOOMSDAY CLOCK

is a timepiece that clocks in how many minutes

the world is away from an apocalyptic scenario...

“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...”

• Eugene Rabinowitch,

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

worry about the global security situation and the
preservation of humanity is at an all-time high.
And the clock is ticking.
This is not a plot from the latest testosterone-
filled action movie or a novel. Nope. This is
an analogical commentary on the current threat
level representation of how imminent we, as
a race, are towards irrevocable catastrophe
being unleashed on earth.
The Doomsday Clock was created by
the members of the Bulletin of the Atomic
Scientists as a response to imminent or future
nuclear threats. In 1947, the members, who
consisted of the core members of the Manhattan
Project (which designed and created the first
nuclear bomb; America used those weapons
against Japan in WWII), started publishing
a newsletter with information about nuclear
weaponry in the world. The cover of the first
newsletter had the clock on it, with the hands
seven minutes away from midnight.
The clock has moved hands 22 times in its
existence. The factors the scientists take into
consideration range from nuclear threats,
climate change, biosecurity, bio terrorism, cyber
warfare, among others.

WORDS: moshita prajapati

It’s two

and a half

minutes to

midnight

on the

Doomsday

Clock...

90 June 2017