Slashdot Mirror
The Doomsday Clock Is Reset: Closest To Midnight Since The 1950s (npr.org)
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has taken the unprecedented step of moving the Doomsday Clock ahead 30 seconds, taking the world to two-and-a-half-minute to midnight. The scientists said Thursday that several factors weighed heavily in their decision, particularly climate change denial by people in power -- they cited U.S. President Donald Trump -- and talk about more nuclear weapons. From a report on NPR: The setting is the closest the clock has come to midnight since 1953, when scientists moved it to two minutes from midnight after seeing both the U.S. and the Soviet Union test hydrogen bombs. It remained at that mark until 1960. "Make no mistake, this has been a difficult year," Rachel Bronson, executive director and publisher of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, said as the new setting was announced Thursday.
"Over the course of 2016, the global security landscape darkened as the international community failed to come effectively to grips with humanity's most pressing existential threats, nuclear weapons and climate change ... This already-threatening world situation was the backdrop for a rise in strident nationalism worldwide in 2016, including in a U.S. presidential campaign during which the eventual victor, Donald Trump, made disturbing comments about the use and proliferation of nuclear weapons and expressed disbelief in the overwhelming scientific consensus on climate change."
It isn't meaningless metric. It is a great piece of elitist propaganda that indicates how they like things at that moment. Whenever someone is against the globalist agenda they advance the clock, and when Obama took over, they love it, and moved it back a bit. Even though Obama pissed off Russia and gave Iran a clear path to Nuclear weapons, none of that mattered.
It is what it is, propaganda, and as such it has meaning,
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
first off, we gave them NOTHING, except what they were owed. That money was being held from the Iran Hostage Crisis and under reagan, we agreed PRIOR that it belonged to Iran and could NOT be used for hostage or other items. So, our sitting on it was useless.
Per international laws, namely, nuclear related, everything that they had done up to that point, WAS LEGAL. They were doing NOTHING ILLEGALLY. So, getting a 10 year delay was about as good as it was going to go.
As to the sanctions that Obama had gotten on Iran, well, we saw what happened with sanctions on Iraq. Most nations agreed, and then ignored them after some time. Hell, many American businesses with nice GOP contacts, were busy trading with Iraq.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
It's a fact that Donald Trump has said some scary stupid shit about nuclear weapons. It's not just speculation to reason that the President of the US might act in accordance with his stated positions.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
The Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists did not change the position of the clock just from speculation, or because they "don't like Trump." They did so based on their observations of world events, including those surrounding Donald Trump. TFA quotes the Board:
Over the course of 2016, the global security landscape darkened as the international community failed to come effectively to grips with humanity's most pressing existential threats, nuclear weapons and climate change ... This already-threatening world situation was the backdrop for a rise in strident nationalism worldwide in 2016, including in a U.S. presidential campaign during which the eventual victor, Donald Trump, made disturbing comments about the use and proliferation of nuclear weapons and expressed disbelief in the overwhelming scientific consensus on climate change.
If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
The position of the clock was not changed during the Cuban Missile Crisis. From the Bulletin's FAQ page:
Were the hands moved during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962? No. They were not moved during the 10-day crisis because too little was known at the time about the circumstances of the standoff or what the outcome would be. In fact, after the crisis, US and Soviet leaders installed a direct telephone line for communication, and within months signed the Partial Test Ban Treaty outlawing underground nuclear weapons testing—the first treaty addressing the nuclear weapons threat. On the basis of these steps, the Bulletin set the clock back from seven minutes to midnight to 12 minutes to midnight in 1963.
If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
Yes, the sanctions were working..... because the was the purpose of the sanctions .
the purpose wasn't endless punishment, sanction for sanction sake, but to drive them to the negotiating table, and set back their program.
and it worked: they came to the table, and they made a deal, one that verifiably sets them back tremendously.
and we didn't GIVE them anything. it was THEIR MONEY to start with.
The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
On the other hand President Trump just lost all the senior state department officials.
See. Your opinions here are questionable because you base your beliefs on blind headlines from partisan sites. Then you spew it out as fact for the world to notice.
....
Here is the org chart.
The Undersecretary for Management and 3 others under him resigned.
At this point you can realize that what you just said and your thoughts from what you just believed are really, super wrong when faced with facts, or
You can pretend like it is no big deal and that all the rest of the information you get in that way is fine so there is no need to reevaluate any of your positions on things.
Why is it so hard to only have politicians for a few years, then have them go away?
Do you honestly believe that's a risk? On the assumption you aren't trolling, let me explain.
The Earth has a geological-scale carbon cycle. All the carbon in the air and ocean is something like a hundred-thousandth of the carbon in the rock cycle. Venus's atmosphere is not simply carbon similar to what's in our air, oceans, fossil fuel reserves, etc, but the result of all that carbon in the crust being released. There aren't any surface features on Venus more than a few 100 million years old. It's thought that the entire crust melted, recently (geologically speaking), and that this may happen regularly, as Venus doesn't have plate tectonics to allow internal heat to escape via convection.
So, 1, Venus's atmosphere is a result of the crust melting, and, 2, the atmosphere is the least of your worries if the crust melts!
Historical CO2 concentrations on Earth have been 10x what they are today. It certainly wasn't an ice age, but life prospered. In general, plants like CO2, to the point where, in the last warm era, megaflora supported the grazing habits of 40-ton herbivores.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.