Latest news with #BulletinofAtomicScientists
Express Tribune
25-03-2025
- Politics
- Express Tribune
India's growing missile capabilities
Listen to article Like other leading nuclear powers, India has been modernising its conventional and nuclear forces. Recent reports from the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, Arms Control Today, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, International Institute for Strategic Studies and many other leading national and international think tanks reflect how and why India is growing and modernising its deterrent forces. Scholarly assessments could be a) prestige, b) power projection, c) escalation dominance, and d) temptation for preemptive strikes for winning short and long battles. It is imperative to note that India has been developing Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) systems, Multiple Independently-Targetable Reentry Vehicles (MIRVs), Submarine Launched Ballistic Missiles (SLBMs), the K-series ranging from 700km to expected 5000+km, Brahmos missile series from supersonic to hypersonic with increasing ranges from 500km to 1500km, S-400 sophisticated missile defense systems, and more importantly India's Defence Research & Development Organization has ambitious plans for Hypersonic Glide Vehicle (HGV) ranging up to 15000km. Technically, all these increasing ranges and lethality goes beyond China reaching up to the Central Asian region, Russia, Canada, the US and the Latin American countries. That said, India is not only increasing the number of nuclear weapons, but also the delivery systems required for carrying these warheads to assigned targets. The more India increases its warheads, the more delivery systems it would require. One of the sophisticated delivery systems is India's growing nuclear capable missile systems. It counts from short ranges reaching up to intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). For example, it is reported in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists on "India Nuclear Forces, 2024" that India's new Agni types of missiles could even go beyond ranges of 10,000km. Some scholars even assess that such ranges could further increase up to 16,000km. One wonders if India's growing missile capabilities with increasing ranges and sophistication could threaten regional and global security. Aforementioned, India's aspiration for power projection comes from its economic wherewithal and its increasing strategic partnership with the leading powers such as the US, Russia and Israel that in turn boosts up its force modernisation. The recent Trump-Modi meeting indicates how the US President might influence the Indian leadership to buy American technology including the US offer for its F-35 aircrafts. Whether or not India gets the F-35, the deterrent force modernisation and power maximisation emanating out of such an imbalanced strategic partnership increases India's security. This happens without strategically comprehending how this could potentially decrease the security of Pakistan amidst the acute security dynamics between the two South Asian rivals. India and Pakistan have already fought a number of wars, faced a number of crises and confronted many border skirmishes. Unresolved longstanding issue of Kashmir has become a nuclear flashpoint. The Balakot crisis on 26 February 2019 reflected India's failed, but escalatory risk for imposing its dominance in the region. However, Pakistan responded with the Swift Retort on the following day. The risk of escalation from conventional to nuclear level continues to exist and the growing strategic imbalance between the two rivals further worsens such escalatory risk in South Asia. The leading powers need to be cognisant of India's growing missile capabilities that accelerates arms race, security dilemma and crisis instability. The increasing imbalances emanating out of the leading powers growing strategic ventures with India adds fuel to the fire. Crisis management for the ultimate crisis resolution through the balancing act by major powers may help reduce the risk of escalation. Pakistan continues to retain strategic balance for ensuring its sovereignty and territorial integrity. Such strategic balance is India-specific for deterrence purposes while ensuring broader strategic stability in South Asia.
CBS News
26-02-2025
- Science
- CBS News
Doomsday Clock is closest its ever been to human extinction, but University of Chicago scientists remain optimistic
It was a small change, but a frightening one. Last month, the "Doomsday Clock" was moved up to 89 seconds, the closest the world has ever been to total annihilation. The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, based at the University of Chicago, uses the clock as a metaphor to show how close the planet is to reaching human extinction. Believe it or not, the goal of the Doomsday Clock isn't to scare you. It's to make you take action. Despite the grim message the clock currently conveys, one of the people behind it is actually optimistic about humanity's future. University of Chicago professor Daniel Holz is one of the people who moved the Doomsday Clock forward last month. He's the current chair of the Science and Security Board at the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, which has been tracking the risk of world destruction since atomic weapons were invented. "It's a symbolic thing. We're trying to capture the urgency of the moment," he said. "We're at a moment of incredible danger. Everyone is freaked out. What are we doing? We need to turn the clock back." At this moment, Holz said humanity is threatened by nuclear weapons… "We're building more weapons, we're modernizing the arsenal. Even though we have plenty of weapons to wipe out civilization many times over ... we want even more and even better weapons. You can ask why, but we're doing it, China's doing it, Russia is doing it, the treaties are all going away," he said. Climate change... "Climate change is happening. We just came off the hottest year on record. There are fires, there was floods, there's extreme drought. There are extreme storms. It's all happening. I don't think anyone paying any attention has any doubt at this point that climate change is happening, and it's getting worse," Holz said. Biohazards like pandemics... "Because of travel, because of modern life as we know it, pandemics have a tendency to go much faster, and we saw that with COVID, and no place is safe," Holz said. And even artificial intelligence... "If an AI hallucinates and ends civilization, that would be a bummer," Holz said. But the clock isn't meant to depress you. It's designed to inspire you. "We're hoping that, by bringing attention to this, people will react accordingly, and the clock will be turned back," Holz said. The clock did turn back in 2010. So, what would make Holz and the Bulletin move the clock in the right direction again? "Heads of state saying, 'Whoa, we do have to talk. Let's not just demonize each other, but let's sit down and try to make a deal. Let's try to work something out.' That is progress," he said. Holz said there are already positive signs on climate change. "The world is increasingly aware; and citizens, people on the streets are increasingly aware. We need that to kind of trickle up, as it were, to leadership," Holz said. "To be on this board to work with the Doomsday Clock is a fundamentally optimistic endeavor. If we were convinced it was hopeless, there's no point in spending one's time doing this." The furthest from midnight the Doomsday Clock has ever been was 17 minutes to midnight in 1991, after the Cold War ended and a new arms treaty between the U.S. and the Soviet Union greatly reduced the number of nuclear weapons in their arsenals.
The Independent
12-02-2025
- General
- The Independent
I never worried about ‘prepping' for the apocalypse – but then I spoke to survivalists
After a recent playdate, a dad friend of mine told me that he and his family would be able to survive off-grid during a national crisis. He's well prepared for it, in fact. He stockpiles food in barns and frozen meat in freezers. Along with canned goods, long-life milk, rice and grains. He works in cybersecurity and told me that at his second home in Wales, where he has a few acres, he's got enough supplies – along with solar and diesel power generators – to keep them all safe for a month. He's also trained his children, ages eight and 11, to shoot, fish and fend for themselves. 'Why not just be ready for all situations?' he said. 'The UK hasn't got contingency measures in place to the extent that we would need for a large-scale alternative plan for clean water, energy and food. [The country] is a lot more fragile than people realise. If a cyberattack does manage to shut down our power supply, most banks and utilities have back-up, but if we run out of power, we lose our phone signal because there's not enough energy.' It got me thinking. I stockpile antibiotics just in case. And I do worry about asteroids. But should I be more worried about the state of the world? Just last month, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists set their symbolic Doomsday Clock forward one second, making it 89 to midnight – the closest to oblivion it's ever been. They had much to pull from, they said: the Russia-Ukraine war, conflicts in the Middle East, the threat of nuclear conflict, climate change, the AI arms race, and a looming bird flu pandemic. But is going all out with an underground bunker or a supply of dry food mere common sense, or a sign that you've allowed your paranoia to run rampant? Some prepping sounds sensible. Doing a lot of it surely means living in constant panic mode. Prepping, I learn, can become all-consuming and stems from anxiety and fear. It can be a symptom of underlying mental health conditions like obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). It could even reflect an addiction to drama. 'Doomsday prepping, at its core, can absolutely be a logical response to uncertainty and fear,' says Dr Scott Lyons, a psychologist and the author of Addicted to Drama: Healing Dependency on Crisis and Chaos in Yourself and Others. 'After all, preparing for potential crises is a survival instinct.' But he cautions against going too far. 'It's not just about stockpiling supplies, it's about the emotional charge. The focus on potential disaster can serve as a way for people to avoid deeper, unresolved feelings, or internal chaos. It's like living in a perpetual state of 'what if', which can feel oddly comforting for someone who thrives on intensity or who feels disconnected from themselves.' For some, this behaviour stems from early experiences of instability or trauma. 'If someone grew up in an environment where chaos was the norm, their nervous system might become wired to seek it or even create that same level of activation,' Dr Lyons continues. 'It's not just about being prepared; it's about staying in a heightened state of readiness, which can feel safer than slowing down and facing the stillness.' But like any addiction, he points out, it's about the payoff: 'The rush of adrenalin, the sense of purpose, the distraction from discomfort.' There will be an inevitable crash, and that starts the whole process over again. Dr Adam Fetterman is an associate professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Houston, Texas, and in 2019 researched the prepper mindset for the European Association of Personality Psychology. He found that motives for prepping differed from person to person. 'One motive is a fear regarding the availability of supplies [or] that humans will not be cooperative in that environment,' he says. 'The other motive is the idea or excitement of competing in a survival scenario.' The difference, he adds, between everyday prepping and self-described 'preppers' is extremity. Many of us, after all, like to prepare for a rainy day. Some just take it further than that. 'It's responsible to prep a bit, especially in areas like Huston, where we have to prep for hurricanes,' he says. 'We've had supply chain issues, as well as prolonged times without power.' However, this doesn't mean resorting to extreme thinking. 'You don't have to stockpile weapons and not trust our fellow humans.' Dr Fetterman's research found that increased belief in the need to prep is associated with a host of factors: religion, conservatism, cynicism, a conspiracy mentality, negative daily experiences, and global political events. For Dr Sarita Robinson, though, it's just about precaution. The associate dean in the School of Psychology and Humanities at the University of Central Lancashire, and known as 'Dr Survival', she's spent more than 18 years researching people's reactions to disasters. She also happens to be a prepper herself. In case she receives the government's emergency warning alarm that an attack is imminent, she has a three-month supply of food under the stairs, portable power, tons of loo roll, and enough water and purification tablets to last five days. 'All the things you might need for 48 hours if you could not return home,' she says. She points out that psychological prepping is also important; building your confidence in being able to survive – and being able to adapt. 'If one plan doesn't work, it's about being able to quickly move to another,' she says. But she adds that people tend to get preppers and survivalists confused. 'Some survivalists – like Mad Max types – can take things to extremes, while preppers are actually doing what we should all do and preparing for emergencies. It's one thing to have a three-month supply of food under the stairs, like me, but quite another to have a nuclear bunker built in your garden.' Further pandemics are Dr Robinson's top concern, which tracks with a boom in prepping seen since Covid – 'people saw how quickly the world can change', she says. Unsurprisingly, many companies have started to cash in. The Lincolnshire-based UK Nuke Shelters can build custom-designed bunkers for between £50,000 and £100,000, and they've reportedly seen a 300 to 400 per cent increase in inquiries in the past couple of years. Preppers Shop UK in North Cornwall, meanwhile, allows punters to buy portable power generators, freeze-dried meals, gas masks and former military full-body NBC suits, for nuclear, biological and chemical welfare. A best-selling item is the 'one-month survival military ration pack supply box', which includes 60 British military food pouches. A vegan option costs £199. As for me, I've just discovered that a friend's father has begun prepping for the end of the world at his home in Oxford. It's slightly reassuring. At least I know where to head now in case of an emergency.
The Independent
12-02-2025
- General
- The Independent
My friend told me he's a doomsday prepper – should I become one too?
After a recent playdate, a dad friend of mine told me that he and his family would be able to survive off-grid during a national crisis. He's well prepared for it, in fact. He stockpiles food in barns and frozen meat in freezers. Along with canned goods, long-life milk, rice and grains. He works in cybersecurity and told me that at his second home in Wales, where he has a few acres, he's got enough supplies – along with solar and diesel power generators – to keep them all safe for a month. He's also trained his children, ages eight and 11, to shoot, fish and fend for themselves. 'Why not just be ready for all situations?' he said. 'The UK hasn't got contingency measures in place to the extent that we would need for a large-scale alternative plan for clean water, energy and food. [The country] is a lot more fragile than people realise. If a cyberattack does manage to shut down our power supply, most banks and utilities have back-up, but if we run out of power, we lose our phone signal because there's not enough energy.' It got me thinking. I stockpile antibiotics just in case. And I do worry about asteroids. But should I be more worried about the state of the world? Just last month, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists set their symbolic Doomsday Clock forward one second, making it 89 to midnight – the closest to oblivion it's ever been. They had much to pull from, they said: the Russia-Ukraine war, conflicts in the Middle East, the threat of nuclear conflict, climate change, the AI arms race, and a looming bird flu pandemic. But is going all out with an underground bunker or a supply of dry food mere common sense, or a sign that you've allowed your paranoia to run rampant? Some prepping sounds sensible. Doing a lot of it surely means living in constant panic mode. Prepping, I learn, can become all-consuming and stems from anxiety and fear. It can be a symptom of underlying mental health conditions like obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). It could even reflect an addiction to drama. 'Doomsday prepping, at its core, can absolutely be a logical response to uncertainty and fear,' says Dr Scott Lyons, a psychologist and the author of Addicted to Drama: Healing Dependency on Crisis and Chaos in Yourself and Others. 'After all, preparing for potential crises is a survival instinct.' But he cautions against going too far. 'It's not just about stockpiling supplies, it's about the emotional charge. The focus on potential disaster can serve as a way for people to avoid deeper, unresolved feelings, or internal chaos. It's like living in a perpetual state of 'what if', which can feel oddly comforting for someone who thrives on intensity or who feels disconnected from themselves.' For some, this behaviour stems from early experiences of instability or trauma. 'If someone grew up in an environment where chaos was the norm, their nervous system might become wired to seek it or even create that same level of activation,' Dr Lyons continues. 'It's not just about being prepared; it's about staying in a heightened state of readiness, which can feel safer than slowing down and facing the stillness.' But like any addiction, he points out, it's about the payoff: 'The rush of adrenalin, the sense of purpose, the distraction from discomfort.' There will be an inevitable crash, and that starts the whole process over again. Dr Adam Fetterman is an associate professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Houston, Texas, and in 2019 researched the prepper mindset for the European Association of Personality Psychology. He found that motives for prepping differed from person to person. 'One motive is a fear regarding the availability of supplies [or] that humans will not be cooperative in that environment,' he says. 'The other motive is the idea or excitement of competing in a survival scenario.' The difference, he adds, between everyday prepping and self-described 'preppers' is extremity. Many of us, after all, like to prepare for a rainy day. Some just take it further than that. 'It's responsible to prep a bit, especially in areas like Huston, where we have to prep for hurricanes,' he says. 'We've had supply chain issues, as well as prolonged times without power.' However, this doesn't mean resorting to extreme thinking. 'You don't have to stockpile weapons and not trust our fellow humans.' Dr Fetterman's research found that increased belief in the need to prep is associated with a host of factors: religion, conservatism, cynicism, a conspiracy mentality, negative daily experiences, and global political events. For Dr Sarita Robinson, though, it's just about precaution. The associate dean in the School of Psychology and Humanities at the University of Central Lancashire, and known as 'Dr Survival', she's spent more than 18 years researching people's reactions to disasters. She also happens to be a prepper herself. In case she receives the government's emergency warning alarm that an attack is imminent, she has a three-month supply of food under the stairs, portable power, tons of loo roll, and enough water and purification tablets to last five days. 'All the things you might need for 48 hours if you could not return home,' she says. She points out that psychological prepping is also important; building your confidence in being able to survive – and being able to adapt. 'If one plan doesn't work, it's about being able to quickly move to another,' she says. But she adds that people tend to get preppers and survivalists confused. 'Some survivalists – like Mad Max types – can take things to extremes, while preppers are actually doing what we should all do and preparing for emergencies. It's one thing to have a three-month supply of food under the stairs, like me, but quite another to have a nuclear bunker built in your garden.' Further pandemics are Dr Robinson's top concern, which tracks with a boom in prepping seen since Covid – 'people saw how quickly the world can change', she says. Unsurprisingly, many companies have started to cash in. The Lincolnshire-based UK Nuke Shelters can build custom-designed bunkers for between £50,000 and £100,000, and they've reportedly seen a 300 to 400 per cent increase in inquiries in the past couple of years. Preppers Shop UK in North Cornwall, meanwhile, allows punters to buy portable power generators, freeze-dried meals, gas masks and former military full-body NBC suits, for nuclear, biological and chemical welfare. A best-selling item is the 'one-month survival military ration pack supply box', which includes 60 British military food pouches. A vegan option costs £199. As for me, I've just discovered that a friend's father has begun prepping for the end of the world at his home in Oxford. It's slightly reassuring. At least I know where to head now in case of an emergency.
USA Today
29-01-2025
- Politics
- USA Today
What is the Doomsday clock? Why did it move closer to global catastrophe? What it means
What is the Doomsday clock? Why did it move closer to global catastrophe? What it means Show Caption Hide Caption 'Doomsday Clock' moves one second closer to midnight The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists moved the Doomsday Clock one second closer to midnight, meaning humanity is closer to destroying itself. The 2025 Doomsday Clock is ticking closer to midnight than ever before, signaling 'humanity edging closer to catastrophe' according to the Atomic Scientists. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists announced on Tuesday the clock now reads 89 seconds to midnight, one second closer than last year. It's the closest it has been since 1947, when the clock was introduced. Scientists warned in their 2025 Doomsday Clock Statement, the new 2025 Clock time signals that "the world is on a course of unprecedented risk, and that continuing on the current path is a form of madness. The United States, China, and Russia have the prime responsibility to pull the world back from the brink. The world depends on immediate action." Manpreet Sethi, member of Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and distinguished fellow at the Centre for Air Power Studies in New Delhi, said in the statement:'The risk of nuclear use continues to grow due to capabilities building up and treaties breaking down. Russia has suspended compliance with the New START treaty and withdrawn ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. China is rapidly increasing its nuclear arsenal. And, the US has abdicated its role as a voice of caution. It seems inclined to expand its nuclear arsenal and adopt a posture that reinforces the belief that 'limited' use of nuclear weapons can be managed. Such misplaced confidence could have us stumble into a nuclear war.' Another member scientist and senior research scholar for cyber policy and security at the Center for International Security and Cooperation, Herb Lin, said AI has the potential to accelerate "chaos and disorder." He expressed concerns over integrating artificial intelligence into weapons of war, raising questions about the "extent to which machines will be allowed to make or support military decisions—even when such decisions could kill on a vast scale." Here's what to know about the Doomsday Clock and what it means. What is the Doomsday Clock? The Doomsday Clock is a metaphor or symbol representing how close humanity is to self-destruction via a human-made global catastrophe according to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists was founded in 1945 by Albert Einstein, J. Robert Oppenheimer and University of Chicago scientists who had helped develop the first nuclear weapons for the Manhattan Project. The group started the Doomsday Clock two years later. The Clock's original setting in 1947 was seven minutes to midnight. It has since been set backward eight times and forward 18 times. The farthest time from midnight was 17 minutes in 1991, and the nearest is 89 seconds, set in January 2025. The clock is not actual time, but a hypothetical time that takes into account threats such as climate change, the danger of nuclear weapon disasters, instability in the Middle East, the threat of pandemics, artificial intelligence and mis- and disinformation. This year's member scientists also expressed concerns over climate change, noting in their statement that '2024 was the hottest year on record. Extreme weather and other climate events—floods, tropical cyclones, extreme heat, drought, and wildfires— devastated societies, rich and poor, as well as ecosystems around the world. Yet the global greenhouse gas emissions that drive climate change continued to rise."
