Doomsday clock has now advanced to 90 Seconds to midnight: the closest it has ever been
This newsletter is about the planet, and I had planned to write this week about light topics, like walking in nature, discovering a rare small mushroom on my island, or about my cat Luna. But it's hard to escape the worrying news about our beautiful planet, so tonight, I just have a short update for you about the state of the planet.
Never before were we so close to "midnight"
Today, the Doomsday Clock, a symbolic representation of the likelihood of a global catastrophe, has been moved closer to "midnight" by atomic scientists. The clock, created in 1947 to convey threats to humanity and the planet, is now set at 90 seconds to midnight, the closest it has ever been.
This decision was made due to several factors, but primarily because of the rising dangers of the Ukraine war. The country's sovereignty is at stake, and so are the broader European security arrangements and the norms of international conduct. A (nuclear) escalation of the conflict is a terrible risk.
Climate crisis
The war also undermines the worldwide efforts to combat climate change; the invasion of Ukraine sparked a rush to establish independence from Russian energy supplies, particularly in the European Union.
The Doomsday Clock has been adjusted 18 times since its creation in 1947, with the closest it has ever been to "midnight" being two minutes in 1953, following the testing of the hydrogen bomb by the United States. The clock was furthest from doomsday in 1991, when it was 17 minutes to midnight. The last time it was adjusted was in 2020, when it was moved to 100 seconds to midnight.
Oceans have never been so warm as now
Last week, Carbon Brief published its 'State of the Climate Report". One of the findings about last year is that it was the warmest year ever recorded for ocean heat content, which increased notably between 2021 and 2022. The publication noted that "in many ways, Ocean Heat Content represents a much better measure of climate change than global average surface temperatures. It is where most of the extra heat ends up and is much less variable on a year-to-year basis than surface temperatures."
And to end this short and somber post let me share the most frightening statistic I read today in the same report: the heat increase in 2022 compared to 2021 is roughly 19 times as much as the total energy produced by all human activities on Earth in 2020.
Now I remember why I so much wanted to write about light issues this week.
Notes:
https://thebulletin.org/doomsday-clock/current-time/
https://www.carbonbrief.org/state-of-the-climate-how-the-world-warmed-in-2022/
Terrifying, isn’t it?
Your beautiful light articles of earlier are even more appreciated now with this very ominous news. Thank you for looking at both sides now to help us value what we have when the precarious possibilities lie in menacing wait. Protecting what we can as quickly as we can has never been more important.
This is all super upsetting, but we have to face facts. Surely the "Russians love their children too" (Sting) and must be willing to stop—or at least decrease—their part of the insanity. It's so incredibly unfair that the whole world is held hostage to power-crazed "leaders." Of course, the U.S. is far from innocent, and today was yet another day to wake up to massive gun violence. So much of U.S. leadership is bought and sold by the lobby that's name is so repulsive, I refuse to type it here. I can't get my thoughts around any of this.