The election of Democrat Joe Biden as President of the United States has kept the end of the world clock from approaching the fateful half-note that marks the end of the world.
Created in 1947 by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, an organization of experts who worked on the creation of the bomb and understood the problem posed, the Clock symbolizes the risk of global annihilation.
Since 2007, it has included factors other than nuclear war, such as the climate crisis and disruptive technological developments. In 2020, it reached 100 seconds at midnight, the lowest level in history, maintained this Wednesday (27).
“Negative events may justify moving the clock closer to midnight. But we have seen positive developments,” the Bulletin said in a statement, citing that Biden has already referred the United States to the Paris accords, which are aimed at fighting against the climate crisis, and agreed with Russia on Tuesday (26) to extend the new start.
The last nuclear weapons limitation treaty in the world, the New Start was due to expire on February 5 after the difficulties created by Donald Trump during negotiations with Russian Vladimir Putin.
A prestigious panel of 20 scientists, the Bulletin deplored the Covid-19 crisis and called it a warning to the world, but does not consider the new coronavirus as an event that presents existential risks for humanity.
“Its consequences are serious and lasting, but Covid-19 will not erase civilization and the disease will eventually disappear,” the text said.
More serious, however, is the misinformation that accompanied the escalation of the epidemic. Without directly citing deniers like Trump or Jair Bolsonaro, who were named in last year’s report for his noxious climate policy, the Bulletin was grim.
“False and misleading information has been disseminated on the Internet,” the text said, citing the minimization of risks and criticism of masks and bogus remedies such as hydroxychloroquine, “creating social chaos and resulting in unnecessary deaths”.
The Trump-inspired invasion of Capitol Hill, which could lose his political rights as a result, is cited as the culmination of the disinformation process – the then president lied when he said the election was stolen.
In its nuclear field, the Clock report is only positive when it evokes the opportunity to move forward with the New Start, which limits the monstrous 1,550 operational warheads on each side, Russia and the United States. , enough to destroy the planet several times. times.
“The possibility of the world entering a nuclear war – a danger that has been present for 75 years – has increased in 2020. An extremely dangerous global failure to deal with existential threats has strengthened its grip on the nuclear realm.
Let us quote the Russian, American and Chinese advances in hypersonic missiles, the risks of war between India and Pakistan, the dismantling of the Iranian nuclear agreement and the risk of war with the United States, the new armaments of North Korea, among other events such as Cold War 2.0 between Beijing and Washington.
In the area of climate, mention is made of the delay of developed countries in adhering to bold carbon reduction targets and the fact that the stimuli of the fossil economy exceed those of the greens in the G20 plans.
In 2020, in the group of those countries with the largest economies, programs to support dirty energy-based sectors totaled US $ 240 billion, before US $ 160 billion for alternative sources.
Brazil is mentioned laterally as one of the countries that has made only weak commitments to emission reduction targets.