Showing posts with label Doomsday Clock. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Doomsday Clock. Show all posts

January 8, 2017

In Memory of Shir, Yael, Erez, and Shira

Like the truck rammings in Paris and in Germany, four more 4 young people were murdered today in Jerusalem by a terrorist truck ramming a crowd.

This is the result of radical Islamist terrorism that the Obama administration can't even utter...and which unfortunately has resulted in the loss of so many innocent lives. 


As the Obama administration defends terrorism as "workplace violence" and traffic accidents, they condemn our friend and ally, Israel--the Holy Land.

Nor can we say that the Obama administration stood by and did nothing as the world descended into chaos...no, instead, they actively released the terrorists from GITMO, let Crimea be overrun by Russia, let China militarize the South China Sea, made a disastrous deal with Iran that legitimizes their attaining the nuclear bomb, watched as North Korea tested nuke after nuke and missile after missile, and ignored the overrunning of their "red line" as 500,000 were slaughtered in Syria and refugees streamed across Europe.

What a disgraceful legacy for the Obama administration--Anti-Israel hate and Anti-Semitism, and leadership from behind as the dark forces of terrorism and war engulf the Middle East and Western civilization, and the clock ticks down to midnight. ;-)

(Source Photo: Stand With Us)

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October 25, 2016

Countdown To Nukesville

So I keep reading and hearing about Russia preparations for nuclear confrontation with the West and the overall risk rising greatly:

- Investing in new advanced nuclear weapons, such as stealth nukes that can destroy an area the size of Texas or France

- Adding hundreds of new warheads

- Moving nukes to the European doorstep of Poland and Lithuania

- Flying Russian bombers within 40 miles of California coast

- Pulling out of non-proliferation agreements, including producing new intermediate range nuclear cruise missiles 

- Violating security pacts to destroy plutonium stockpiles

- Skipping the nuclear security summit

- Conducting massive civil defense drills

- Threatening asymmetrical and painful actions against the West, including first strike

- Building new bases in Ukraine, Syria, and now eyeing Cuba and Vietnam

- Building dozens of new underground bunkers

- Entering a new arms race with the U.S. 

Well perhaps this is all just saber-rattling bluster and party-rallying political rhetoric.

The real question is if this is all talk, then why all the costly actions being made?

Self defense experts always say never pull out a weapon unless you seriously intend to use it, so are Russia's intentions to simply counter the West or is it going to go way beyond that. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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October 4, 2016

Are We Leading The World To The Brink

Thanks to some of the worst leadership in generations, we are bringing the world to the brink of disaster.










In 1991, at the end of the Cold War and with nuclear disarmament initiatives underway, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists rated us at 17 minutes to midnight (the best it's ever been) on the famous Doomsday Clock that represents the countdown to global disaster. 


However by 2007, right before this administration, with far greater concerns of a nuclear terrorist attack, we were down to just 5 minutes to midnight.

And now in 2016, we are at a mere 3 minutes to midnight, and "the probability of global catastrophe is very high," as "world leaders had failed to act!"


Moreover, with the current slate of candidates for Presidency both receiving negative ratings of about 60% from registered voters, there is obviously great consternation by the people of the U.S. as well as the rest of the world on the direction we are going in or lack thereof. 


Again today, flailing on the leadership front in Syria, almost 6 years into the war there, we are again "considering tougher options" after the "red lines" were eviscerated, plan B never went anywhere, and we acknowledged that "we have no good options" there, while Russia is bringing in the big guns!


In dangerous world situations, the wrong action by leadership can spark an escalation and lead to negative consequences, but no action, displaying uncertainty and weakness, or attempting a losing appeasement strategy can lead to an even more emboldened enemy and then the Doomsday Clock can strike midnight and we can all pretty much just say one last goodnight. 
;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

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October 21, 2015

The Times and Events Of Gog And Magog

So I have never ever heard so much talk about doomsday as I am these days. 

Earlier in the year (January 2015) the Doomsday Clock moved up to 3 minutes to midnight--that was a full 2 minute move or 40% advance to the end of times. 

The cited reasons by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists:

- "Unchecked climate change"

- "Nuclear arms race"

Essentially, these "pose extraordinary and undeniable threats to the continued existence of humanity."

But on a daily level now--

Islamic extremism showing through post 9/11 mounting turmoil and unbelievable terror in the Middle East, including seeming non-ending ISIS brutality, Iran's march towards nuclear weapons and advanced ballistic missiles, the Sunni vs. Shiite war for dominion centering (lately) in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen but with much larger geopolitcal overtones towards a return of a powerful caliphate to challenge the West, fighting between Muslims and Christians in countries like Nigeria, ongoing terror threats to the democratic State of Israel, and a rising tide death, casualties, and refugees.

Russian aggression in multiple countries and regions including Georgia, Ukraine, and Syria, air and naval military incursions and encroachment towards Turkey, the countries in the Baltic Sea region, the Arctic, and even a Russian military satellite parking itself between 2 U.S. satellites yesterday. 

China's militarization including greater military spending on advanced weapons, Island/posts building in the South China Sea, and ongoing threatening overtures toward Taiwan and other neighbors, and cyber warfare conducted against the U.S.government and the private sector. 

Frightening new military capabilities are coming online with advances in weapons of mass destruction--nuclear, chemical, biological, and radiological--colonization and militarization of space, laser weapons, satellite killers, swarms of drones, armies of robots, and cyberwar.

The drumbeat of climate change and environmental deterioration (unsustainable practices of deforestation, overfishing, pollution, and the extinction of countless species) is being felt in changing weather patterns, global warming, glacier meltdown, alternating threats of flooding and drought in various part of the world, major storms and lightening patterns, and an uptick in natural disasters (tsunamis, hurricanes, and tornadoes), and an overall trend towards shortage and conflict. 

An ailing global economy after 2 major recessions in the 21st century so far, booming national debts, stalling economies, slowing innovation, and scarcity of stable, good paying, full time jobs in an outsourcing, short-term, freelance, contractor culture, and automaton and robotization advances. 

Dysfunctional political systems that are bogged down with endless indecision, infighting, bickering, finger-pointing, stalemates, shutdowns, pork barrel spending, catering to special interest groups, short-term wins at the expense of long-term goals, corruption, and a lack of strong capable leadership at the helm. 

An article I read recently from Russian Times, I believe, said how the U.S. teeters just steps from potential collapse by just relatively easy societal interruptions (presumably that they could facilitate) and that with farms/food production far from major metropolitan areas, people hooked on drugs that they could not get supplies for, and other severe disruptions in our critical care needs, we would be in big trouble--the message was clearly watch out, you are extremely vulnerable. 

That these tactic threats and overtures are already being made explicit is not a good sign. Just politicians and countries throwing around their weight or jockeying for position on the world stage--who knows?

But people are frail, countries are vulnerable, budgets are limited, and bad things can and do happen if we are not careful in a world ticking closer to very dangerous times and events.

The coming realization of the prophecy of a devastating world war--of Gog and Magog--is what people are saying to me.  

In conversation about deteriorating world events, my wife innocently asked someone this week--"Can we avoid a major world war?" Their unequivocal response, "No, it's inevitable!" ;-) 

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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September 19, 2010

Doomsday Clock Architecture

There is something fascinating to me about the doomsday clock—where we attempt to predict our own self-destruction and hopefully prevent it

The chart in this post from the Mirror in the U.K. shows the movement of the Doomsday Clock over the last 60 plus years.


Currently in 2010 (not shown in the chart), we stand at 6 minutes to midnight (midnight being a euphemism for the end of the world or Armageddon).


Since 1947, The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists has hypothesized and visualized with the dials on the clock how close they believe mankind is to self-extinction.

The closest we’ve gotten is 2 minutes to midnight in 1953 after the U.S. and Russia test the first nuclear devices.

The furthest we’ve gotten from midnight is 17 minutes in 1991, when the Cold War was over, the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) was signed, and the U.S. and Russia took their fingers off the hair-trigger alert on their nuclear arsenals pointed at each other.



While some may take the Doomsday Clock as a morbid or pessimistic reminder of our human frailties, missteps, and movement toward potential calamity, I see it as a tool that attempts to keep us—as humankind—from going over the edge.


This is very architecture-like, to me. We look at where we are and (implicitly here) set targets for ourselves to move the hands backward away from Armageddon. The architecture piece that we need to concentrate on is a crystal clear plan to get those hands on the clock way back to where we can feel more secure in our future and that of our children and grandchildren.


Wired Magazine (October 2010) has an article called “Suspend the Deathwatch,” calling for the measurement of “a wider variety of apocalyptic scenarios” and for the addition of a “Doom Queue, with a host of globe-killing catastrophes jockeying for slot number one.” The main idea being that we “do more than predict The End; it would organize our collective anxieties into a plan of action.”


I definitely like the idea of a plan of action—we need that. We need to plan for life, continuity, and a flourishing society that goes beyond the limits of sustainability of our situation today.


We are aware of the world’s growing population (aka the population explosion), the scarcity of vital resources like water, energy, arable land, etc. and the potential for conflict that arises from this. We need to plan for the “what ifs” even when they are uncomfortable. That is part of responsible leadership and a true world architecture. That is a big, but meaningful job indeed.

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