• 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

clock

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 comedoomsday-clockto 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.

However it is the US Presidential election and comments from President Trump that appear to have really forced the issue of moving the clock forward. The Bulletin points to the rise in ‘strident nationalism’ that brought about the US election result and Trump’s comments on nuclear weapons and climate change.

Whilst nuclear codes access and climate change haven’t concerned the President too much, this is not the first time apocalyptic language has been used since he came to power. Trump himself has enjoyed painting a picture of the ‘American carnage’ he sees across the United States today – he did so in his own inauguration speech.

Scientists v. Trump

The Bulletin makes clear that it would normally focus on long-term trends (ie not the behaviour of a democratic leader who could be in power for just four years) but:

“…the statements of a single person-particularly one not yet in office-have not historically influenced the board’s decision on the setting of the Doomsday Clock.

But wavering public confidence in the democratic institutions required to deal with major world threats do affect the board’s decisions. And this year, events surrounding the US presidential campaign-including cyber offensives and deception campaigns apparently directed by the Russian government and aimed at disrupting the US election-have brought American democracy and Russian intentions into question and thereby made the world more dangerous than was the case a year ago.

This move by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is very much a statement, Lawrence Krauss, chairman of the group’s board of sponsors, told Bloomberg, “It’s only six days into the new administration and actions do speak louder than words, and we wanted to send a message that things are not going in the right direction.”

Absence of facts and Moral narcissism

Yesterday we talked about the alternative facts of government. The Bulletin of Scientists are also worri