He said this both in reference to our nation and our world. In this week's State of the Union address, President Obama emphasized that we are one people with a common destiny. The people are making their voices heard and demanding a change of course from the status quo.
#3 MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT PLUS#
In Vienna, 44 nations plus the pope advocated for a treaty banning nuclear weapons. In October of 2014, 155 nations at the United Nations called for the elimination of nuclear weapons. The Vienna Humanitarian Impacts of Nuclear Weapons conference last month saw 4/5 of the nations of the world participating. Expenditures for weapons that can never be used and at a time when the economic needs for our country and world are so great.Īround the world, there is a growing awareness of the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons, and a corresponding desire to rid the world of these weapons. Congress will soon begin budget debates that include proposals to increase nuclear weapons spending for stockpile modernization by $355 billion over the next decade and up to a trillion in the next 30 years. There is so much that can and must be done. Time is not on our side and the fact that we have not experienced a nuclear catastrophe is more a result of luck than mastery and control over these immoral weapons of terror. Recent documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act detail over 1000 mishaps that have happened in our nuclear arsenals. Probability theorists have long calculated the dismal odds that the chance for nuclear event either by plan or accident are not in our favor. Ultimately the resultant dead at ground zero would be the lucky ones. Every aspect and facet of our society would be overwhelmed by a nuclear attack. We kid ourselves into a false sense that we can prepare and plan for the outcome of a bomb detonation. Medical science has weighed in on the impacts and devastation of even the smallest nuclear explosion in one of our cities and the reality is there is no adequate medical or public health response to such an attack. There is no escaping the global impact of such a small regional nuclear war. The ensuing dramatic climate changes and famine that would follow threaten the lives of up to 2 billion on the planet with effects that would last beyond 10 years. These studies identify the much greater dangers posed by even a small regional nuclear war using just 100 Hiroshima size bombs out of the 16,300 weapons in today's global stockpiles. Today's announcement by the Bulletin further corroborates the dangers confirmed by recent climate science. What is clear is that the time to ban nuclear weapons is now. The decision to move the minute hand is made by the Bulletin's Board of Directors in consultation with its Board of Sponsors, which includes 18 Nobel Laureates. The Clock has ranged from 2 minutes to midnight at the height of the Cold War to 17 minutes till midnight with the hopes that followed the end of the Cold War. He spoke to the dangers of both nuclear weapons and climate change saying, "they are both very difficult and we are ignoring them" and emphasized "this is about doomsday, this is about the end of civilization as we know it". "the decision was based on a very strong feeling of urgency". "the choice is ours and the clock is ticking"."we feel the need to warn the world". In moving the hand to 3 minutes to midnight, Kennette Benedict the Executive Director of the Bulletin identified in his comments: "the probability of global catastrophe is very high". This significant move of TWO minutes is the 22nd time since its inception in 1947 that the time has been changed. The clock represents the count down to zero in minutes to nuclear apocalypse - midnight. The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists has just announced its latest nuclear Doomsday Clock moving ahead the minute hand to three minutes till midnight.
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