The Doomsday Clock Remains at Three Minutes to Midnight
The existential threats we face have not changed all that much since the Cold War. By James Carden JANUARY 28, 2016 The ‘Doomsday Clock’ that remains at three minutes to midnight is unveiled by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Tuesday, January 26, 2016, at the National Press Club in Washington. (AP Photo / Alex Brandon) On September 30, 1971 the United States and the Soviet Union signed the Accidents Measures Agreement in Washington that both recognized, and sought to curtail, the possibility of an accidental nuclear war. The agreement read, in part, that The very existence of nuclear-weapon systems, even under the most sophisticated command-and-control procedures, obviously is a source of constant concern. Despite the most elaborate precautions, it is conceivable that technical malfunction or human failure, a misinterpreted incident or unauthorized action, could trigger a nuclear disaster or nuclear war. Did these dangers disappear when the Cold War ended a quarter of a century ago? Hardly. On Tuesday, members of the Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists were joined by former secretary of state George Shultz, former secretary of defense William Perry, California Governor Jerry Brown and former UN ambassador Thomas Pickering to announce that the hands of the iconic Doomsday Clock remain set at three minutes to midnight. The Doomsday Clock was created in 1947 by the Bulletin, in order to help convey to the public the civilizational dangers posed...
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