The risk is latent, and humanity is doing very little to change the situation. Since last year, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists reported its diagnosis of the risk of climate emergency, and it seems that we are only 100 seconds away from the end of the world.
The members of this society, who have accumulated several Nobel Prizes, created a symbolic clock. This “apocalypse clock” shows the approximate number of minutes remaining until the end of the world. In the 2018 clock, the hands were off midnight (end of the world) by 2 minutes.
Now, environmental changes, political conflicts, nuclear programs, the global pandemic, etc., are factors that have contributed to putting us only 100 seconds before the end of the world.
The World Meteorological Organization explained that to state that this is the time we have left is logical when thinking about the transformation we have seen on the planet:
2019 closed a decade of exceptional global heat, ice loss, and record sea-level rise driven by greenhouse gases expelled by human activities. 2020 and 2021 haven’t been any different.
This warning might seem like a fictional story, but the reality is that the “apocalypse clock” is a translation of the effects we have observed in recent months around the world. The risks are there, and it seems that humanity prefers to get used to a world of chaos.
A decision that will save the planet
Physicist Lawrence Krauss, a member of the Atomic Scientists, acknowledged that the biggest problem in stopping the clock is political issues. Political representatives should accept that it is in their hands (for the most part) to stop this clock. Societies must put pressure on leaders because much is lost if they don’t even try. This political paralysis, which is about to turn our greatest fears into a reality, must stop.
“In the face of this daunting threat landscape and the new tendency of political leaders to reject negotiations and institutions that can protect civilization in the long run, the Bulletin today moves the Doomsday Clock 20 seconds closer to midnight, closer to apocalypse than ever before.” – CA Report
Scientists have recommended several actions to stop the advance of the clock, but implementing them will depend on many people willing to unite and act in that direction. Now we have 100 seconds left, and it is a matter of being willing to change the panorama, yes or yes.
Text and photos courtesy of Ecoosfera
Translated by María Isabel Carrasco Cara Chards
