In an annual exercise since 1947, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists sets its Doomsday Clock to provide an educated guess of how close humanity is to the apocalypse. The organization will announce its 2023 clock this month, and I expect the outlook is bleaker.
If the United States responds to rising nuclear danger with more arms control instead of more weapons, it could help push the clock’s hands back again.
Last year was a reminder that the nuclear threat most of us spend little time worrying about is only one obstinate autocrat away. Vladimir Putin’s saber rattling is the most immediate escalation but not the only one.
