A STOPPED CLOCK THAT'S PROBABLY WRONG.

The "doomsday clock" of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has become a way for people to use their prestige as, well, nuclear physicists, to lend authority to doomsday predictions of the lunatic left more generally.

The clock is set each January by the bulletin's Science and Security Board (SASB) in consultation with its Board of Sponsors, which includes 13 Nobel laureates. They warned Thursday that humanity is "at doom's doorstep," which "is no place to loiter."

"100 seconds to midnight reflects the board's judgment that we are stuck in a perilous moment—one that brings neither stability nor security," said SASB co-chair and George Washington University professor Sharon Squassoni. "Positive developments in 2021 failed to counteract negative, long-term trends."

If those developments "failed to counteract" shouldn't the clock be set closer to midnight?

Never mind that, there are talking points to push, and a revolution to foment.

The bulletin offers 13 specific suggestions that include setting new limits on nuclear weapons and establishing no first use policies; accelerating decarbonization, including shifting money from fossil fuels to pandemic-recovery investments that favor climate mitigation and adaptation; and collaboratively identifying and implementing "practical and ethical ways to combat internet-enabled misinformation and disinformation."

The clock announcement sparked a flurry of demands from outside experts and activists, including the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) and Global Zero, a worldwide movement also advocating for the total elimination of such arms.

"Two years after the historic decision to move the clock the closest it's ever been to midnight, nuclear-armed governments continue to run unacceptable risks even while speaking to the importance of restraint," said Global Zero CEO Derek Johnson. "Words are cheap and time is short."

"As we sit at just 100 seconds to midnight, world leaders need to prioritize steps to reduce the role of nuclear weapons in global and national security, and prevent the risk that they will be used by accident, miscalculation, or unintended escalation," he said, adding that the ultimate goal is to "continue to turn back the clock through more ambitious agreements that set the course to the total, verified elimination of all nuclear weapons everywhere."

What was it, six years ago, that the clock should have run out on climate grounds alone?  The warning on the original Earth Day was that we would be done by 2000; and no less than Al "so boring that his Secret Service codeword was Algore" Gore was on record that we would be done by 2016.  I even took a picture to confirm that we were still here.

The late Rush Limbaugh had his own "Algore countdown clock" and that might be why I got the idea for taking the picture.

I'll give David French the final word on doomsday environmentalists, even those moonlighting from their day job as nuclear physicists.  "We’ve taken them seriously for far too long. Now, it’s time to laugh."