VOA新闻杂志2024--Group: ‘Doomsday Clock’ Unchanged at 90 Seconds to Midnight

Group: ‘Doomsday Clock’ Unchanged at 90 Seconds to Midnight

A nonprofit group called Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is again bringing attention to crises around the world with its "Doomsday Clock."

The group describes the Doomsday Clock as a measure of the risk of worldwide disaster. On Tuesday, the group kept its "clock" set at 90 seconds to midnight, the same position as last year. The group noted¹ Russia's nuclear weapons activities during the Ukraine war, nuclear-armed Israel's war in Gaza and climate change.

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists considers midnight to be the point of total world destruction. The group says its clock is based on "existential" risks to Earth and its people. Those includes nuclear threats, climate change and technologies like artificial intelligence and new biotechnology.

Rachel Bronson is the Bulletin's president and CEO. She told Reuters news service that keeping the clock unchanged from the year earlier does not mean that the world is stable.

The group said on Tuesday that dangerous trends continue to point toward disaster. China, Russia, and the United States are all modernizing² their nuclear weapons. The group said that increases the risk of a nuclear war through a mistake or misunderstanding.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine began nearly two years ago and has increased tensions with the West to their highest levels since the Cold War. An "end to Russia's war in Ukraine seems distant, and the use of nuclear weapons by Russia in that conflict remains³ a serious possibility. In the past year Russia has sent numerous worrying nuclear signals," Bronson said.

Bronson noted Russian President Vladimir Putin's February 2023 decision to suspend Russian involvement in the New START treaty with the United States. That treaty limited the nuclear supplies of the two countries. The United States and Russia together hold almost 90 percent of the world's nuclear weapons.

Bronson also noted Putin's March decision to send nuclear weapons to Belarus and the Russian withdrawal⁴ of approval for a treaty banning nuclear tests. Russian expert Sergei Karaganov last year supported threatening to carry out nuclear strikes in Europe to frighten Russia's enemies.

Alexander Glaser of Princeton University is a member of the group's board of experts on nuclear technology and climate science.

"The picture is quite bleak⁵ on the nuclear side this year," he said.

Nuclear-armed Israel has been at war with Hamas since the Palestinian Islamist group, based in Gaza, launched attacks in southern Israel in October 2023. Bronson said the conflict risks becoming a big war in the Middle East.

Climate change was added as an issue affecting the clock in 2007. Bronson noted that 2023 was the hottest year on record since satellite measurement of temperatures started in 1979. She also said fossil fuel emissions⁷ continue to rise.

Bronson said that 2023 was a record-breaking year for clean energy with $1.7 trillion in new investments. But fossil fuel investments also totaled nearly $1 trillion. Bronson called current efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions not enough. She said the results of climate change "disproportionately affect the poorest people in the world."

The Chicago-based nonprofit created the clock in 1947 at the beginning of the Cold War. The Bulletin was founded in 1945 by a group including scientists Albert Einstein and Robert Oppenheimer.

Words in This Story

doomsday - n. the day that the world ends or is destroyed

existential - adj. having to do with existence itself

stable -adj. not likely to change; steady in nature

trend -n. the direction of change

bleak - adj. not hopeful

fossil fuel - n. carbon fuels such as oil, natural gas, and coal

emission⁶ - n. something that is released into the air

greenhouse gas -n. a gas that is believed to cause the atmosphere to get warmer

disproportionate - adj. affecting one side more than the other

1 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

2 modernizing   

使现代化，使适应现代需要( modernize的现在分词 )； 现代化，使用现代方法

参考例句：

• Modernizing a business to increase its profitability and competitiveness is a complicated affair. 使企业现代化，从而达到增加利润，增强竞争力的目的，是一件复杂的事情。
• The young engineer had a large share in modernizing the factory. 这位年轻工程师在工厂现代化的过程中尽了很大的“力”。

3 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

4 withdrawal   

n.取回，提款；撤退，撤军；收回，撤销

参考例句：

• The police were forced to make a tactical withdrawal.警方被迫进行战术撤退。
• They insisted upon a withdrawal of the statement and a public apology.他们坚持要收回那些话并公开道歉。

5 bleak   

adj.(天气)阴冷的；凄凉的；暗淡的

参考例句：

• They showed me into a bleak waiting room.他们引我来到一间阴冷的会客室。
• The company's prospects look pretty bleak.这家公司的前景异常暗淡。

6 emission   

n.发出物，散发物；发出，散发

参考例句：

• Rigorous measures will be taken to reduce the total pollutant emission.采取严格有力措施，降低污染物排放总量。
• Finally,the way to effectively control particulate emission is pointed out.最后，指出有效降低颗粒排放的方向。

7 emissions   

排放物( emission的名词复数 )； 散发物（尤指气体）

参考例句：

• Most scientists accept that climate change is linked to carbon emissions. 大多数科学家都相信气候变化与排放的含碳气体有关。
• Dangerous emissions radiate from plutonium. 危险的辐射物从钚放散出来。