Former California Gov. Jerry Brown called out politicians for “sleepwalking” on increasing nuclear and climate change threats Thursday during his first public appearance as executive chairman of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists.
The group updated its Doomsday Clock in Washington D.C. — a metaphorical countdown to midnight, when human-inflicted catastrophe may strike — leaving it frozen at two minutes to midnight, the same time announced in 2017.
The only other time the clock has been this close to midnight was in 1953, when the U.S. and the Soviet Union were embroiled in a nuclear arms race.
Brown made clear that even though the clock hasn’t inched any closer to midnight, there’s no cause for celebration.