DOOMSDAY CLOCK: We’re Three Minutes from Midnight

Late in January the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, announced that The Doomsday Clock remains at three minutes to midnight, which conveys how close we are to destroying our civilization with dangerous technologies of our own making: “First and foremost among these are nuclear weapons, but the dangers include climate-changing technologies, emerging biotechnologies, and cybertechnology that could inflict irrevocable harm, whether by intention, miscalculation, or by accident, to our way of life and to the planet.”

Back in 1982, over a million people marched at UN Headquarters in New York City to protest the extreme danger of nuclear war posed by the U.S. and Soviet nuclear bombs ready to be launched in minutes.

The Struggle for Disarmament NOW

The U.S. and Russia continue to maintain 800 warheads on high alert, ready to launch a deliberate attack while the possibility exists “of an accidental, unauthorized or inadvertent nuclear exchange.”

The U.S., Russia, France and Britain “continue to modernize their nuclear arsenals with seemingly little effort to relinquish these weapons…

“…The materials used to construct nuclear bombs can be found in 144 sites around the world [which] increases the chances that terrorist groups could get hold of enough highly enriched uranium or plutonium to use in a bomb.”

Additionally, now “the dangers include climate-changing technologies, emerging biotechnologies, and cyber technology that could inflict irrevocable harm whether by intention, miscalculation or by accident, to our way of life and to the planet.”

The visible results of global warming are beginning to receive wide attention despite the skeptics. That attention is growing as more and more are affected by widespread weather patterns, including long-lasting droughts, outsized storms, increased flooding of coastal cities, lack of fresh water, and other disasters.

Much attention has focused on the real danger posed by ISIS and other terrorists. However little attention has been paid to the interlocking threats posed above. That is why the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists’ linkage of these issues with the nuclear weapons threat deserves wide distribution and acceptance.

Broken Arrows

There were 32 known ”Broken Arrows,” that is, serious nuclear weapons accidents between 1950 and 2000. These involved accidental launching, firing, detonating, theft or loss of the weapons. Six were lost and never recovered. It’s really a miracle that the bombs haven’t detonated.

The Titan II Launch Complex 374-7 in Damascus, Kansas was the site of a disaster on September 18, 1980, ten days after the Plowshares Eight action. A worker dropped a wrench into a Titan II missile silo. It punctured a pressurized fuel tank, which leaked for eight hours, then exploded and nearly incinerated the warhead. An Air Force airman was killed and 21 were injured.

Swords into Plowshares

Since 1980 hundreds of peace activists have taken part in about 100 actions at nuclear weapons facilities, facing arrest and prison terms.

In 2012, for example, members of “Transform Now Plowshares” were jailed for cutting four fences to gain entry to Y-12, the “Fort Knox of Uranium,” the most secure bomb facility in the U.S. Every U.S. warhead contains uranium from Y-12.

Action Proposals

The Federation of American Scientists is promoting the following proposals for action:

1. Cut spending on modernization of nuclear weapons. [Total cost over thirty years is estimated at one trillion dollars.]

2. Re-energize the campaign for disarmament.

3. Follow up on the Paris Accords regarding greenhouse gases.

4. Deal now with nuclear waste. [Three-quarters of radioactive monitoring stations are turned off or don’t work – Wall St. Journal

5. Create institutions specifically to explore and address potentially catastrophic misuses of new technologies.

The Doomsday Clock is Ticking

Will the environmental and peace movements begin to join together in addressing the issues that threaten the planet? We can begin by educating the public, challenging the media to address them, joining together in public forums and protests, gaining the support of the many groups that are already active in these issues and demanding action from public officials.

The time is now!

Molly Rush is a member of the TMC board and New People editorial collective.

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