Arkansas Online

Closer to Doomsday

Tuesday morning at 8 a.m. (Central time) the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists made a stunning announcement. The 2023 Doomsday Clock is set at 90 seconds until midnight, 10 seconds closer to nuclear Armageddon that it has ever been in its 75-year history!

The war in Ukraine dramatically increases Russia and the United States’ threats of a nuclear weapons exchange. The scientists warn that “escalation of the conflict by accident, intention, or miscalculation is a terrible risk. The possibility that the conflict could spin out of anyone’s control remains high.”

While our state Legislature debates the meaning of “woke” and which bathroom children should use, the two parties in Congress are fighting with each other. But we can work to eliminate the twin threats of climate change and nuclear catastrophe and turn the Doomsday Clock into a relic of the past.

We must demand that Congress adopt a policy of Real Security and start taking steps to eliminate nuclear weapons: taking them off hair-trigger alert, adopting a no-first-use rule, and joining the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons that has been ratified by 68 nations and is international law. Canceling the program to “modernize” an absurd stockpile of nuclear “deterrents” could save trillions of dollars that could be used to “cool” global warming.

The scientists warned that the current state of inertia on nuclear weapons is akin to being in a burning building and debating whether it is better to die from inhaling smoke or being consumed by the flames.

JEAN GORDON

Little Rock

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2023-01-29T08:00:00.0000000Z

2023-01-29T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://edition.arkansasonline.com/article/284614606678576

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