- Doomsday Clock moves closer to midnight
- World not been as close to self-destruction since 1953
- Threat of nuclear powers, climate change and technology all considered heightened risks
- First time the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists have singled out an individual – President Trump
- Doom-mongering is arguably distracting and uncertainties should be more considered
- Gold and silver perform well during times of uncertainty and provide a safe-haven
- Wall Street’s largest fund managers have bet on gold in face of growing uncertainty
Buy gold because of uncertainty not Doomsday
It is two and a half minutes to midnight, the Clock is ticking, global danger looms. Wise public officials should act immediately, guiding humanity away from the brink. If they do not, wise citizens must step forward and lead the way. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, January 2017.
We hope you remembered to reset your clocks last week, not the timekeeping kind but the doomsday kind. And hopefully you’ve made a start on those bucket lists as apparently nuclear power, climate change, nationalist politics and technology have brought us one step closer to The End.
The Doomsday Clock, as kept and set by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, was moved forward last week by 30 seconds to two-and-a-half minutes to midnight. This is the closest the clock has come
to 12am since 1953 when the Soviet Union tested its first hydrogen bomb, nine months after the US first tested their own version.
“The Clock has become a universally recognized indicator of the world’s vulnerability to catastrophe from nuclear weapons, climate change, and new technologies emerging in other domains.” Bulletin of Atomic Scientists
The movement of the clock by half a minute comes as the group of scientists believe that in 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.”
The statement acknowledges that the outlook for climate change has not changed in the last year, but is concerned with the lack of action. It is also concerned about technology and ‘the knotty problems’ in some fields of technological innovation that may or may not present a threat to humanity. Back in 1947, they say “there was one technology with the potential to destroy the planet, and that was nuclear power” but now there are multiple threats.