Doomsday Clock at record 90 seconds to midnight amid Ukraine crisis

[Mary Wilson]

Tue 24 Jan 2023 11.58 EST
Julian Borger

A panel of international scientists has warned that humanity’s continued existence is at greater risk than ever before, largely as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists set its Doomsday Clock at 90 seconds to midnight, the closest to midnight the clock has been since it was established in 1947 to illustrate global existential threats at the dawn of the nuclear weapons age. ...


“We are living in a time of unprecedented danger, and the Doomsday Clock time reflects that reality. Ninety seconds to midnight is the closest the clock has ever been set to midnight, and it’s a decision our experts do not take lightly,” Bronson said. ...

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/24/doomsday-clock-at-record-90-seconds-to-midnight-amid-ukraine-crisis?CMP=share_btn_tw

[Emily]

Yes, I think the danger is much greater than during the Cold War. If I had children, I'd be doing everything I could to get this war settled. Col. MacGregor is starting to get worried now as things escalate: "Under those circumstances, I'm surprised if we'll get through this without a nuclear exchange."

[Emily]

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1862688/

Bates DG. Avoiding nuclear war: ultimate in preventive medicine? Can Med Assoc J. 1981 Oct 15;125(8):923-4, 929-30. PMID: 7306903; PMCID: PMC1862688.

Would medical treatment be a factor
in survival from a nuclear war?
"No" is the blunt answer from one
group of physicians who have been
telling anyone who will listen that
nuclear war is not survivable, in
any meaningful sense; that only
prevention can save civilization
from destruction.

This is the message of the Inter-
nationial Physicians for the Preven-
tion of Nuclear War, (IPPNW), a
group that held its first congress
last March at Airlie House, Vir-
ginia. Along with various experts
and representatives of other like-
minded groups, more than 70 phy-
sicians from 12 countries attended,
including four delegates from Can-
ada.
One of the most noted features
of the Airlie House meeting was the
presence of several Soviet delegates,
including Dr. Eugueni I. Chazov, a
co-chairman of the congress. Direc-
tor-General of the National Cardio-
logical Center in the USSR Aca-
demy of Medical Sciences, Chazov
is also a personal physician to
Leonid Brezhnev. Not an official
delegate, but adroit at capturing
headlines, was Georgi Arbatov, di-
rector of the Institute of US and
Canadian Studies of the USSR
Academy of Sciences. A humorous
man, Arbatov coined the best bon
mot (and scored a propaganda
point at the same time) when he
suggested with a chuckle that the
congress was a case of "doctors of
the world unite"…