The Doomsday Clock is the gimmick we need to think about nuclear tensions
The Doomsday Clock is now two minutes to midnight, as close as it’s ever been to the hour standing in for the apocalypse because of threats posed by nuclear weapons, climate change, and fake news. So, should we take the Doomsday Clock seriously?
The clock is a symbolic threat assessment made by a panel of experts at the nonprofit Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. They evaluate the likelihood of Armageddon and move the minute hand accordingly. This year, North Korea’s progressing nuclear weapons program, the unpredictable leadership of Donald Trump, and the disintegrating relationships between nuclear powers helped tick the clock 30 seconds closer to humanity’s extinction. “To call the world’s nuclear situation dire is to understate the...