El Salto, April 9, 2020
At the end of last January, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists – which since 1945 has been an unavoidable reference on those scientific and security issues that technological advances have on humanity – published its Doomsday Clock 2020 Statement. In this report, the Bulletin warned that “the international security situation is now more dangerous than it has ever been, even at the height of the Cold War”. It also stressed that humanity “continues to face two simultaneous existential dangers – nuclear war and climate change – are compounded by a threat multiplier, a cyber information enabled information warfare, that undercuts society’s ability to respond.” And it underscored that the situation was aggravated “because world leaders have allowed the international political infrastructure for managing them to erode,” warning of the complete absence of plans by the United States to resume nuclear arms control talks with Russia, against which, along with China, “an bullying and derisive tone” has been adopted. (…) The Statement gained some media attention, but its implications were soon buried under the COVID-19 health emergency. However, as Noam Chomsky pointed out to DiEM25 echoing the Bulletin’s report, the coronavirus crisis will pass and, despite its “terrifying consequences”, the two most threatening challenges of our time will remain before our eyes: nuclear war and global warming. Against this backdrop, it is worth reviewing certain recent events, which seem to project scenarios that some believed to be a thing of the past, in order to reposition the disturbing nuclear threat in times of climate change.
Access the text here.
