The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists today moved its Doomsday Clock to 100 seconds to midnight, the closest to the doomsday strike of midnight that it has ever been.
In its statement, the Bulletin said, “Humanity continues to face two simultaneous existential dangers—nuclear war and climate change—that are compounded by a threat multiplier, cyber-enabled information warfare, that undercuts society’s ability to respond.”
The Bulletin’s warning today underscores what I have been saying in my campaign.
Nuclear War – I am the only candidate for president (since Mike Gravel withdrew) with an aggressive program for nuclear disarmament. I am calling for the US to adopt a policy of No First Use of nuclear weapons, to unilaterally disarm to a Minimum Credible Deterrent, and, on the basis of those tension-reducing initiatives, seek urgent negotiations among the nuclear powers for complete, mutual, and global nuclear disarmament. That is what 122 non-nuclear countries called for two years ago in adopting the text of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. The US should align with those countries in an international push for the abolition of nuclear weapons.
Climate Change – The Ecosocialist Green New Deal I have proposed would initiate a crash program to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions and achieve 100% clean energy by 2030 in the US, which the science-based carbon budgets indicate rich countries must do to avert climate catastrophe. The climate challenge is global, but the US will have no success in persuading and helping other countries make the energy transition until it is doing so itself.
Cyberwar – I am calling for the US to take Russia up on its offers, rejected by the Bush and Obama administrations, to negotiate a cybersecurity treaty with provisions for deconfliction, verification, and inspection processes like those employed in peace and arms control treaties. The US should seek to expand cybersecurity treaties to include all countries win order to remove the threat of cyberwar to peace and democracy.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has now moved the Doomsday Clock closer to midnight in three of the last four years. In 2017, the Bulletin moved the clock from three minutes to two and a half minutes. In 2018, the clock moved two minutes to midnight. Today it moved to 1 minute, 40 seconds to midnight.
Real solutions can’t wait!
*in order
As Stephen Cohen points out in his excellent book, War with Russia?, the two-party corporate run state and their cronies in the corporate Media, especially the New York Times and the Washington Post, are primarily to blame for this current very dangerous impasse when it comes to the threat of nuclear exchange with Russia. The Democratic and Republican Party have both lied to Russian leaders constantly about the expansion of NATO, as is pointed out in the National Security Archive article from Dec. 12th, 2017. American foreign policy towards Russia, under both Republican and Democratic regimes, has indeed been, as Mr. Trump once tweeted, “very foolish”. 100 seconds to midnight, however, should elicit a much stronger statement: the Corporate run State is truly, truly dangerous.
For an understanding of the current impasse with Russia and the threat of nuclear war that stems from that impasse I would strongly recommend reading Stephan Cohen’s “War with Russia?”. The media establishment in this country has acted very, very badly when it comes to covering this subject and has consistently beat the drum for war and avoided the truth. As the Bulletin article correctly points out most of the old mechanisms for dealing with a Cold War with Russia have been disassembled – making the likelihood of nuclear exchange much, much greater. People should make a point of informing themselves on this very pressing issue. The corporate media is failing to inform the public.