Extreme Temperature Diary- Sunday January 26th, 2020/ Main Topic: Counting Down To Doomsday…What Must Be Done To Turn Back The “CCC” or “Climate Crisis Clock”

Sunday January 26th… Dear Diary. The main purpose of this ongoing post will be to track United States extreme or record temperatures related to climate change. Any reports I see of ETs will be listed below the main topic of the day. I’ll refer to extreme or record temperatures as ETs (not extraterrestrials)😉

Main Topic: Counting Down To Doomsday…What Must Be Done To Turn Back The “CCC” or “Climate Crisis Clock”

Dear Diary. Last week the iconic “Doomsday Clock” was moved from two minutes until midnight to only 100 seconds to midnight, or its second hand was moved forward by 20 seconds. Experts behind setting the clock think that we are closer than ever to doom for civilization as we know it. Of course, this clock is just an allegorical or metaphorical device used to warn everybody that society is on the right or wrong track for sustainability. The two biggest main long term problems facing mankind are nuclear proliferation and that pesky climate crisis, which I have been dealing with since 1989. At least it doesn’t appear that a nuclear war is imminent despite the collection of weapons in the United States, Russia, China and Europe.

The climate crisis is another matter. Despite pleas from the likes of Vice President Al Gore, Greta Thunberg, and Bill McKibben nations and corporations don’t appear to be serious enough in early 2020 to reduce emissions in order to avoid the globe from burning past +2.0°C above preindustrial conditions. The Paris Accords are on very shaky ground mainly due to Trump.

The following Desdemona Despair article describes in detail why the Doomsday Clock was pushed forward another twenty seconds:

https://desdemonadespair.net/2020/01/scientists-move-doomsday-clock-closer-to-midnight-we-are-now-expressing-how-close-the-world-is-to-catastrophe-in-seconds.html

Scientists move Doomsday Clock closer to midnight – “We are now expressing how close the world is to catastrophe in seconds”

By Gayle Spinazze
23 January 2020

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists) – The iconic Doomsday Clock symbolizing the gravest perils facing humankind is now closer to midnight than at any point since its creation in 1947. To underscore the need for action, the time on the Doomsday Clock is now being expressed in seconds, rather than minutes: Today, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ Science and Security Board in consultation with the Bulletin’s Board of Sponsors, which includes 13 Nobel Laureates, moved the Doomsday Clock from two minutes to midnight to 100 seconds to midnight.

As the statement issued today by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists explains: “Humanity continues to face two simultaneous existential dangers—nuclear war and climate change—that are compounded by a threat multiplier, cyber-enabled information warfare, that undercuts society’s ability to respond. The international security situation is dire, not just because these threats exist, but because world leaders have allowed the international political infrastructure for managing them to erode.”

The Doomsday Clock has now moved closer to midnight in three of the last four years. While the Doomsday Clock did not move in 2019, its minute hand was set forward in 2018 by 30 seconds, to two minutes before midnight. The Clock was adjusted in 2017 to two and a half minutes to midnight from its previous setting of three minutes to midnight.

Scientists with the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists move the hands of the Doomsday Clock to within 100 seconds of midnight, closer to midnight than at any point since its creation in 1947, 23 January 2020. Photo: Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
Scientists with the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists move the hands of the Doomsday Clock to within 100 seconds of midnight, closer to midnight than at any point since its creation in 1947, 23 January 2020. Photo: Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

Rachel Bronson, president and CEO, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, said: “It is 100 seconds to midnight. We are now expressing how close the world is to catastrophe in seconds – not hours, or even minutes. It is the closest to Doomsday we have ever been in the history of the Doomsday Clock. We now face a true emergency – an absolutely unacceptable state of world affairs that has eliminated any margin for error or further delay.”

Former California Governor Jerry Brown, executive chair, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, said: “Dangerous rivalry and hostility among the superpowers increases the likelihood of nuclear blunder. Climate change just compounds the crisis. If there’s ever a time to wake up, it’s now.”

For the first time, experts from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists were joined in making the Doomsday Clock change by members of The Elders. Founded by Nelson Mandela in 2007, The Elders are independent global leaders working together for peace and human rights.

Former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, deputy chair, The Elders; and former South Korean Foreign Minister, said: “We share a common concern over the failure of the multilateral system to address the existential threats we face. From the US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement and the Iran Nuclear Deal, to deadlock at nuclear disarmament talks and division at the UN Security Council – our mechanisms for collaboration are being undermined when we need them most.”

The hands of the Doomsday Clock move to within 100 seconds of midnight, closer to midnight than at any point since its creation in 1947, 23 January 2020. Graphic: Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

The hands of the Doomsday Clock move to within 100 seconds of midnight, closer to midnight than at any point since its creation in 1947, 23 January 2020. Graphic: Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

Former President of Ireland Mary Robinson, chair, The Elders, and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said: “We ask world leaders to join us in 2020 as we work to pull humanity back from the brink. The Doomsday Clock now stands at 100 seconds to midnight, the most dangerous situation that humanity has ever faced. Now is the time to come together – to unite and to act.”

The Doomsday Clock statement highlights three worsening factors:

  • Nuclear weapons. “In the nuclear realm, national leaders have ended or undermined several major arms control treaties and negotiations during the last year, creating an environment conducive to a renewed nuclear arms race, to the proliferation of nuclear weapons, and to lowered barriers to nuclear war. Political conflicts regarding nuclear programs in Iran and North Korea remain unresolved and are, if anything, worsening. US-Russia cooperation on arms control and disarmament is all but nonexistent.”
  • Climate change. “Public awareness of the climate crisis grew over the course of 2019, largely because of mass protests by young people around the world. Just the same, governmental action on climate change still falls far short of meeting the challenge at hand. At UN climate meetings last year, national delegates made fine speeches but put forward few concrete plans to further limit the carbon dioxide emissions that are disrupting Earth’s climate. This limited political response came during a year when the effects of manmade climate change were manifested by one of the warmest years on record, extensive wildfires, and quicker-than-expected melting of glacial ice.”
  • Cyber-based disinformation. “Continued corruption of the information ecosphere on which democracy and public decision making depend has heightened the nuclear and climate threats. In the last year, many governments used cyber-enabled disinformation campaigns to sow distrust in institutions and among nations, undermining domestic and international efforts to foster peace and protect the planet.”

At the same time, the Doomsday Clock statement also identifies possible action steps to turn back the hands of the Clock.

  • US and Russian leaders can return to the negotiating table to: reinstate the INF Treaty or take other action to restrain an unnecessary arms race in medium-range missiles; extend the limits of New START beyond 2021; seek further reductions in nuclear arms; discuss a lowering of the alert status of the nuclear arsenals of both countries; limit nuclear modernization programs that threaten to create a new nuclear arms race; and start talks on cyber warfare, missile defenses, the militarization of space, hypersonic technology, and the elimination of battlefield nuclear weapons.
  • The countries of the world should publicly rededicate themselves to the temperature goal of the Paris climate agreement, which is restricting warming “well below” 2 degrees Celsius higher than the preindustrial level. That goal is consistent with consensus views on climate science, and, notwithstanding the inadequate climate action to date, it may well remain within reach if major changes in the worldwide energy system and land use are undertaken promptly. If that goal is to be attained, industrialized countries will need to curb emissions rapidly, going beyond their initial, inadequate pledges and supporting developing countries so they can leapfrog the entrenched, fossil fuel-intensive patterns previously pursued by industrialized countries.
  • The United States and other signatories of the Iran nuclear deal can work together to restrain nuclear proliferation in the Middle East. Iran is poised to violate key thresholds of the deal.
  • The international community should begin multilateral discussions aimed at establishing norms of behavior, both domestic and international, that discourage and penalize the misuse of science. Science provides the world’s searchlight in times of fog and confusion. Furthermore, focused attention is needed to prevent information technology from undermining public trust in political institutions, in the media, and in the existence of objective reality itself. Cyber-enabled information warfare is a threat to the common good. Deception campaigns—and leaders intent on blurring the line between fact and politically motivated fantasy—are a profound threat to effective democracies, reducing their ability to address nuclear weapons, climate change, and other existential dangers.

December 2020 marks the 75th anniversary of the first edition of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, initially a six-page, black-and-white bulletin and later a magazine, created in anticipation that the atom bomb would be “only the first of many dangerous presents from the Pandora’s Box of modern science.”

Contact

  • Alex Frank, (703) 276-3264 and afrank@hastingsgroup.com
  • Max Karlin, (703) 276-3255 and mkarlin@hastingsgroup.com

Scientists move Doomsday Clock closer to midnight

You know folks, we should have our own “Climate Crisis Clock.” When the CCC hits midnight that means there is no chance of keeping global averages below +2.0C, leading to a very unstable climate threatening civilization itself.

Personally I’m setting the thing to only 60 seconds before midnight because of current temperature and polar ice trends. I’ll give the CCC another 20 seconds if a Democrat takes the White House in 2020. I’ll give the CCC yet another 20 seconds if a strong Green New Deal comes to pass before 2025. Of course, if Trump wins a second term the CCC will strike midnight since that would mean the U.S. will completely pull out of the Paris Accords in early 2021. Other countries like Brazil under Bolsonaro would soon follow. 

We then could not get emissions where they should be in 2030, using up the rest of our carbon budget.

It’s up to all of us to prevent the Climate Crisis Clock to not chime midnight.

Please consider donating through the Paypal widget on this site. I need everyone’s support to continue my work, especially that of processing NCEI record count data for scientific research.

Here is some more weather and climate news from Sunday:

(As usual, this will be a fluid post in which more information gets added during the day as it crosses my radar, crediting all who have  put it on-line. Items will be archived on this site for posterity.)

Here is an “ET” from Indonesia:

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