nuclear-news

Outgoing California Gov. Jerry Brown has a new job: preventing nuclear war  Brown is joining the team behind the Doomsday Clock, which combats existential risks to humanity. VOX, By Kelsey Piper  Oct 29, 2018 California Gov. Jerry Brown has been sounding the alarm about the risks of nuclear weapons since his first term as governor in the 1970s. In the last few years, other threats to a stable human future have started to concern him as well.

Last week, the governor — whose term ends this January — announced that he’s accepted a position as the executive chairman of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, a nonprofit that combats the risks of nuclear war and other threats to the world.

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists was founded in 1945 by researchers who worked on the atomic bomb. It published a regular magazine in which the scientists who built the bomb made the case for worldwide disarmament. Today, it publishes research on “manmade existential threats such as nuclear war, climate change, and disruptive technologies.”

The organization is best known for its Doomsday Clock, which the group updates annually to reflect the risks facing humanity. The clock currently says we are two minutes from midnight — the closest we’ve been since the Cold War to a disaster that could annihilate humanity……..

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists publishes research and updates on nuclear risk, climate change, and emerging risks to humanity from new technologies. All of those feature in their Doomsday Clock. In their 2018 statement, though, nuclear risks loomed largest. “Major nuclear actors are on the cusp of a new arms race,” the group wrote, “one that will be very expensive and will increase the likelihood of accidents and misperceptions. Across the globe, nuclear weapons are poised to become more rather than less usable because of nations’ investments in their nuclear arsenals.” …..

Brown and the team behind the Doomsday Clock are not alone in raising concerns about nuclear war and other threats.

The Global Challenges Foundation, which publishes an annual report on global catastrophic risks, named many of the same concerns that have driven the Doomsday Clock team to move us from six minutes to midnight in 2010 to two minutes to midnight today. Nuclear war is prominent among the risks they consider; they’re also worried about climate change, pandemics, AI, and threats we can’t yet anticipate — just like, 10 years before the atomic bomb, only a few scientists had any inkling it was possible. …….https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2018/10/29/18038254/jerry-brown-nuclear-war-doomsday-clock-climate-change-existential-ris