Running out of time?
The minute hand of the Doomsday Clock has been moved closer to midnight to reflect the growing concerns of global terrorism, the unchecked nuclear ambitions of Iran and North Korea and — in a first — the threat of climate change.
They put climate change right up there with nuclear threat? That’s new, though the clock has been ticking ominously for a long time.
The clock was first set 60 years ago by an elite group of nuclear scientists at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, shortly after the United States dropped its atomic bombs on Japan. It was meant to symbolize the perils facing humanity from nuclear weapons.
But for the first time, the clock is also registering the threat of global warming, which they call a “second nuclear age.”
The two just don’t seem to equate in immediate gravity.
The clock, which hangs in the University of Chicago, has been set at seven minutes to midnight since 2002. It was moved Wednesday to five minutes before the hour.
I wonder, seriously, if this has anything to do with the season premiere of “24” Sunday and Monday nights. Especially since the final scene Monday night showed the stunning nuclear bomb detonation by terrorists in an American city. Which prompted some of the news shows on Tuesday to bring in expert analysts and discuss the likelihood that the “24” scenario might actually happen sometime soon. They talked about the possibility that suitcase bombs might be in the United States, and guessed how serious a threat that may be these days.
And now, the Doomsday Clock gets moved by the scientists. Is art imitating life, or life imitating art? Or has that question become as outmoded as ‘Can’t we all just get along?’?
