Noam Chomsky: Donald Trump has brought the Doomsday Clock ticking dangerously close to midnight
Donald Trump has brought the Doomsday Clock ticking dangerously close to midnight, Noam Chomsky has warned.
The renowned academic said the clock offered a "very revealing, brief analysis of the state of potential for human survival."
In an interview with Wallace Shawn on the New York Public Library Podcast, Mr Chomsky said: “Two years ago it was pushed forward to three minutes to midnight. A week into Trump’s term, it was moved to two-and-a-half minutes to midnight - that’s the closest it’s been since 1953."
He added: "Now it’s more dangerous than it has been throughout the whole nuclear age, and that’s now combined with the threat of global warming.
"So what are we doing about it? Well, what we’re doing about it is ignoring it.”
The experts who make up the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists set the clock at two-and-a-half minutes from midnight earlier this year, citing the failure of the international community to deal with nuclear weapons and climate change.
Lawrence Krauss and David Titley, who lead the organisation, said the danger had been amplified because "the United States now has a President who has promised to impede progress on both of those fronts”.
“Never before has the Bulletin decided to advance the clock largely because of the statements of a single person,” the two scientists said. “But when that person is the new President of the United States, his words matter.”
Noam Chomsky: Donald Trump has brought the Doomsday Clock ticking dangerously close to midnight | The Independent
Donald Trump has brought the Doomsday Clock ticking dangerously close to midnight, Noam Chomsky has warned.
The renowned academic said the clock offered a "very revealing, brief analysis of the state of potential for human survival."
In an interview with Wallace Shawn on the New York Public Library Podcast, Mr Chomsky said: “Two years ago it was pushed forward to three minutes to midnight. A week into Trump’s term, it was moved to two-and-a-half minutes to midnight - that’s the closest it’s been since 1953."
He added: "Now it’s more dangerous than it has been throughout the whole nuclear age, and that’s now combined with the threat of global warming.
"So what are we doing about it? Well, what we’re doing about it is ignoring it.”
The experts who make up the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists set the clock at two-and-a-half minutes from midnight earlier this year, citing the failure of the international community to deal with nuclear weapons and climate change.
Lawrence Krauss and David Titley, who lead the organisation, said the danger had been amplified because "the United States now has a President who has promised to impede progress on both of those fronts”.
“Never before has the Bulletin decided to advance the clock largely because of the statements of a single person,” the two scientists said. “But when that person is the new President of the United States, his words matter.”
Noam Chomsky: Donald Trump has brought the Doomsday Clock ticking dangerously close to midnight | The Independent
