Nuclear war clock

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Current status of the atomic war clock from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

The Doomsday Clock , often at the German abbreviation also Doomsday Clock called (English doomsday clock , actually "Watch of the Judgment ") is a symbolic clock of the journal Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists ( "Report Journal of the nuclear scientist"). It is intended to make it clear to the public how great the current risk of a global catastrophe, in particular due to a nuclear war or a climate catastrophe , is. The decisions are made by the BAS supervisory board together with a sponsorship council, in which 17 Nobel Prize winners are currently (2019) represented.

The clock alludes to the metaphor that it is five minutes to twelve when an extremely adverse event is imminent. In 1947 it was started with the hand position seven minutes to twelve and since then has been moved forward or backward depending on the world situation. Since January 25, 2018, it was two minutes to twelve . On January 24, 2020, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists announced that it had set the clock to 100 seconds before midnight.

Position of the nuclear war clock

Nothing is known about clear criteria by which the participating scientists decide whether to set the clock back or forward. The reasons for the change given in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists are summarized in the following table.

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists appears every two months, but the scientists decide on the clock only once a year in January. Therefore, the Cuban Missile Crisis , during which the world was probably closest to nuclear war so far, is not reflected in the clock, because when the November / December 1962 issue appeared, the crisis was essentially over.

Doomsday clock graph
No. year change new pointer position Reason for change
00 1947 11:53 (seven to twelve) First appearance
01 1949 −4 11:57 (three to twelve) The Soviet Union conducts its first nuclear weapon test .
02 1953 −1 11:58 (two to twelve) The USA and the Soviet Union test thermonuclear devices (hydrogen bomb tests) every nine months.
03 1960 +5 11:53 (seven to twelve) The public's attention is drawn to the fact that nuclear weapons make a war between the US and the Soviet Union irrational. International scientific cooperation is also beginning to establish itself.
04th 1963 +5 11:48 (twelve to twelve) Signing of the contract on the partial implementation of the nuclear test ban .
05 1968 −5 11:53 (seven to twelve) The People's Republic of China procures nuclear weapons; there are wars in the Middle East , between India and Pakistan and in Vietnam ; Defense spending increases in contrast to development aid.
06th 1969 +3 11:50 (ten to twelve) The US ratifies the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty .
07th 1972 +2 11:48 (twelve to twelve) SALT I is signed, SALT II is about to be concluded.
08th 1974 −3 11:51 (nine to twelve) SALT discussions stall. India is developing nuclear weapons.
09 1980 −2 11:53 (seven to twelve) The disarmament talks are still stuck; the number of nationalist wars is increasing, as is the number of terrorist acts.
10 1981 −3 11:56 (four to twelve) The development of nuclear weapons continues on both sides. Conflicts in Afghanistan, Poland and South Africa are worsening the world situation.
11 1984 −1 11:57 (three to twelve) The arms race is accelerating.
12 1988 +3 11:54 (six to twelve) The US and the USSR sign the agreement to reduce medium-range missiles , diplomatic relations improve.
13 1990 +4 11:50 (ten to twelve) Democratic developments in Eastern Europe , the Cold War is coming to an end.
14th 1991 +7 11:43 (17 to twelve) START contracts signed.
15th 1995 −3 11:46 (14 to twelve) Disarmament is stagnating, while defense spending remains at Cold War levels. The disappearance of ex-Soviet nuclear weapons is becoming a serious problem.
16 1998 −5 11:51 (nine to twelve) India and Pakistan are conducting nuclear weapons tests.
17th 2002 −2 11:53 (seven to twelve) Disarmament is stalling. The United States has refused to accept some disarmament treaties and has announced that it is withdrawing from the treaty banning medium-range missiles. Terrorists try to acquire A and B weapons and use them if necessary.
18th 2007 −2 11:55 (five to twelve) North Korea's nuclear test, the nuclear ambitions of Iran, which is accused of developing nuclear weapons and their delivery systems, the lack of security of nuclear material and the continued presence of over 26,000 nuclear weapons in the US and Russia. Furthermore, for the first time, the climate was taken into account in the time calculation.
19th 2010 +1 11:54 (six to twelve) Increased international cooperation: progress on the disarmament treaties between the USA and Russia, Barack Obama's vision of a nuclear-weapon-free world, UN climate conference in Copenhagen to stop climate change.
20th 2012 −1 11:55 (five to twelve) In 2010, it appeared that world leaders would begin to respond to global threats facing humanity. In many cases this trend has not continued or even reversed. For this reason, the clock hand has moved one minute closer to midnight, i.e. back to the year 2007.
21st 2015 −2 11:57 (three to twelve) Continued lack of global political cooperation and climate change is still not adequately combated, as well as strong tensions between the world and nuclear powers United States and Russia, as well as threats in the area of information technology .
22nd 2016 0 11:57 (three to twelve) Conflicts ( de facto annexation of Crimea , Ukraine war , Syrian civil war ) between the United States of America and Russia are increasingly reminiscent of the darkest times of the Cold War . On the other hand, there has been progress in combating climate change, in particular the Paris Agreement . The Iran deal improved relations with Iran and thus eased the tension in the Middle East.
23 2017 −0.5 11:57:30 (two and a half to twelve) The probability of a global catastrophe is again classified as higher. Too few measures are still being taken against it. The press attributes the new status of the Doomsday Clock mainly to the election of Donald Trump as US President .
24 2018 −0.5 11:58 (two to twelve) There are currently no disarmament negotiations. Rather, the use of nuclear weapons is advocated by the American President. Emissions climate targets have not been achieved, which is potentially causing global temperatures to rise.
25th 2019 0 11:58 (two to twelve) Humanity is threatened by two existential dangers. Both are reason enough for great concern and immediate attention. These two threats - nuclear weapons and climate change - were heightened by information warfare last year to undermine democracy in the world. The risks of these and other threats pose an extraordinary threat to the future.
26th 2020 −0.33 11:58:20 (100 seconds to twelve) The same reasons from 2019 together with the worsening political situation and the advancement of climate change caused the Bulletin to let the time pass by 20 seconds. A new peak has thus been set.

References in pop culture

literature

  • The watch is used in the Watchmen comic series . In issue 1 on page 18, the headline of a newspaper on Adrian Veidt's desk warns : "Nuclear Doomsday Clock Stands At Five To Twelve, Warn Experts" (in German: "Experts warn: The atomic war clock is at five to twelve"). In addition, watches throughout the series show this time.
  • The nuclear war clock is used in Piers Anthony's novella Wielding a Red Sword . A mystical incarnation of war found in the novella can control the position of the hands and thus trigger World War III.
  • The comic book Stormwatch PHD, Issue 4 (April 2007) explains that the “real” watch has acquired magical powers and that if someone forcibly moves the hands to 12 o'clock, a nuclear war would be started.
  • The clock is mentioned in Stephen King's short story The End of the Whole Mess and in his novel The Monster .
  • The nuclear war clock is briefly featured in Darwyn Cooke's comic series DC: The New Frontier and in the film adaptation Justice League: The New Frontier .

music

  • The atomic war clock is alluded to in 2 Minutes to Midnight , a single by the band Iron Maiden from the 1984 Powerslave album . On the cover of the single, the mascot Eddie sits in a ruin, in the background a nuclear explosion can be seen.
  • Linkin Park's third album, Minutes to Midnight (2007), refers to the nuclear war clock. In the music videos for Shadow of the Day and Leave out all the Rest , the current time is shown at the beginning, and at the end it is shortly before midnight.
  • The second album by the punk band Civil Blitzkrieg is entitled 5 Minutes To Midnight . According to the band, a reference to the current position of the nuclear war clock.
  • Seven Minutes to Midnight was the second and final single from “Pete Wylie's Wah! Heat incarnation ”from 1980.
  • In the song Doomsday Clock of the Smashing Pumpkins , the Doomsday Clock is used synonymously for the expiring time.
  • In the song Countdown's Begun by Ozzy Osbourne , the nuclear war clock is used as "Judgment Day".
  • The group Wir sind Helden has a song called 23:55: All at the beginning .
  • The title Two Minute Warning from the album Construction Time Again (1983) by the English band Depeche Mode deals with an impending nuclear war.
  • Udo Jürgens alludes to this clock in his piece 5 minutes to 12 noon. There a social problem is in the foreground, but in the live version from the album But please with cream is clearly referred to in the final part.

watch TV

  • The title of the Venture Brothers episode Twenty Years to Midnight is a reference to the nuclear war clock.
  • The eighth episode of the Heroes series is titled Seven Minutes to Midnight , which is the time shown on the nuclear war clock when that episode was first aired in America. In addition, the antagonist Sylar wears a watch that is stopped at that time.
  • The Doctor Who episode four to twelve ( Four to Doomsday ) was sent for the first time in 1982, the Doomsday Clock was at this time to four minutes to midnight. Another time she comes in the episode The pyramid at the end of the world ( The Pyramid at the End of the World ) before, in this episode every clock shows the nuclear war-clock on first 3 and then 2 minutes before midnight.
  • In the series Johnny Test , the nuclear war clock is shown in one episode at five minutes to midnight in the background of a military base, just before the military leaves to save the earth.
  • In the Navy CIS episode The Dream of Fame , an image of the nuclear war clock is used as an indication that a killer is about to kill his next victim five minutes to midnight.
  • In the movie Watchmen - Die Wächter , the nuclear war clock is turned up from 11:55 to 11:59 as a result of the discovery of various nuclear weapons. In the end it is even set to 12:00 when Adrian Veidt calls a Dr. Manhattan indicative fusion bomb uses.
  • In the Madam Secretary episode The Clock is Ticking , Elizabeth McCord's team must prevent the clock from being set.

Web links

Commons : Atomic War Clock  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ "It is 2 Minutes to Midnight". In: Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists . Retrieved April 14, 2010 .
  2. ↑ "Doomsday Clock": Researcher: Humanity is on the verge of self-extinction. FAZ. Access date: January 24, 2019.
  3. ↑ http://www.cbsnews.com/news/doomsday-clock-moves-two-minutes-closer-to-midnight/
  4. ↑ Harish: Doomsday clock readjusted due to climate change and nuclear weapons proliferation. In: inferse.com , January 25, 2015. Accessed January 25, 2015.
  5. ↑ Doomsday Clock hands remain unchanged, despite Iran deal and Paris talks. In: Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. January 26, 2016, accessed November 10, 2016 .
  6. ↑ Current Time. In: Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Retrieved August 20, 2019 (American English).
  7. ↑ Address of the bulletin on January 23, 2020. In: Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Retrieved January 23, 2020 (American English).