The title is a little ominous, I know. Really, I just did that to get your attention, though what I’m discussing is actually kind of important. Last week, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (I know, weird name) released their statement about the state of the world in 2020. It’s safe to say… it does not look good. The Doomsday Clock is closer than ever to hitting midnight and soon, it may be too late.
Okay, I’m sure some of you think that I just threw together random words to make a sci-fi plot, but these are real things. The Doomsday Clock is a metaphorical clock that explains how close humanity is to, essentially, extinction. It was developed in 1947 because of the emerging Cold War. Since then, the Bulletin has come out with a statement on how close we are to killing ourselves.
Their statement for this year basically boils down to global warming and nuclear warfare. The younger generations have been saying for years that global warming needs to be fixed, and nuclear weapons are an enormous threat to our existence. Even though the Bulletin has backed these claims up, it only seems that now that we are below two minutes to midnight (as the clock has been for the past two years), did we see a rise in people actually giving a sh!t.
This isn’t a call for action for people to ditch their plastic straws and stop eating meat, because it’s been proven that it is larger industries and entire countries that are to blame for the exponential change in our global environment. However, this is an encouragement for people to reach out to their legislators to press for stricter regulations on the United States’ environment and nuclear policies. The hyperlink here will take you to information about your state’s national Senators and Representatives so you can contact them and urge them to consider legislation that will reduce our horrific imprint on the Doomsday Clock and perhaps reverse time, giving ourselves a fighting chance.