5 Minutes to Midnight

It's official -- the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists (BAS) have moved the Doomsday Clock to five minutes to midnight, declaring that we now "stand at the brink of a second nuclear age" -- as evidenced by North Korea's nuclear weapons test, Iran's nuclear ambitions, the US renewed interest in the military utility of nuclear weapons, and the existence of large nuclear arsenal in the US and Russia. For the first time, the BAS have also concluded that, "the dangers posed by climate change are nearly as dire as those posed by nuclear weapons."

The course of the clock however can change, but "will depend on humanity’s ability to think in new ways about how to cooperate to achieve common goals." The BAS calls on everyone to engage in dialogue to bring action towards the fight against nuclear proliferation and the climate change. Specifically, the BAS sites major progress in the following areas would make the world a safer place:

• The US and Russia reducing their nuclear weapons cache and destroying more than 20,000 in the next 10 years;
• Increasing efforts and transparency in the storing and securing of nuclear materials around the world;
• Stopping the development of nuclear weapons and ratifying the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty -- which the US, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel are the only holdouts;
• Enact the proposed Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty and stopping the production of highly enriched uranium and plutonium;
• Engage in a serious dialogue about the use of nuclear energy as an alternative fuel to fight climate change;
• Creating the ability to distribute safer nuclear fuel for energy production around the world that couldn't be used to create nuclear weapons;
• Make it more difficult and harmonize the trade and shipment of nuclear technologies and materials;
• Giving more power to the IAEA to police the global nuclear industry.

(You can read the entire BAS Board statement online for the details.)

Related:

• Read the latest issue of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists online.