100 Seconds to Midnight What does this mean? What can we do?

100 Seconds to Midnight What does this mean? What can we do?
Part of the Abolition 2000 webinar series on issues and actions for nuclear abolition

Chair and introduction:

Chair: Marc Finaud (Switzerland), Head of Arms Proliferation, Geneva Centre for Security Policy
Introduction: Marzhan Nurzhan (Kazakhstan/Switzerland), Convenor, Abolition 2000 Youth Network. PNND Coordinator for Commonwealth of Independent States Countries.

Tributes

• Tribute to Caroline Gilbert given by Claire Poyner. Caroline Glibert, a leading member of Abolition 2000 and the Christian Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, who passed away on June 30. See Tribute to Caroline Mass-Glibert.
• Tribute to Bruce Blair given by Alyn Ware. Bruce Blair was the co-founder of Global Zero and a leader in the field of nuclear threat reduction who had direct experience of the nuclear command and control system as young man when he served as a Minuteman nuclear missile launch officer. He passed away on July 19. See Global Zero tribute to Bruce Blair and his obituary in the Washington Post.

Speakers:

• Dr Rachel Bronson (USA), President and CEO of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
• John Hallam (Australia): Director, People for Nuclear Disarmament. Convenor, Abolition 2000 working group on nuclear risk-reduction
• Aaron Tovish (Mexico): Executive Director, Zona Libre. Former Director of Peace and Security Programs at Parliamentarians for Global Action
• Dr Manpreet Sethi (India): Distinguished Fellow and head of the Nuclear Security Project at the Centre for Air Power Studies, New Delhi

Invited interventions:

• Tytti Erästö, Author of SIPRI report Towards Greater Nuclear Restraint: Raising the Threshold for Nuclear Weapon Use.
• Marion Messmer, Author of BASIC report Strategic Risk Reduction in the European Context
• Arthur Duforest, Introduction to the HairTrigger game/app
• Lord Des Browne, Vice-Chair of Nuclear Threat Initiative
• Alfredo Labbe, Chile. One of the former leaders of the De-Alerting Group of Countries.

Outline:

In January 2020, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists set the Doomsday Clock to ‘100 seconds to Midnight’ indicating that humanity is the closest we have ever been to a potential catastrophe from climate change or nuclear weapons use that could have a devastating impact on civilisation.

Since then, COVID-19 has impacted on nuclear security, tensions between nuclear-armed States have deteriorated, the US Senate has authorised funding for resumed nuclear tests and the few nuclear arms controls that still exist are being further eroded.

The webinar explored the risks of nuclear weapons use by accident, miscalculation or intent, and initiatives at national and international levels to reduce these risks.

Presentations and background articles, papers and reports;

• 100 Seconds to Midnight Nuclear risk reduction in light of COVID-19, John Hallam, July 30, 2020;
• Nuclear risk reduction, Twelve Propositions, Aaron Tovish, July 30, 2020;
• Nuclear Risk Reduction: Closing Pathways to Use, Edited by Wilfred Wan. Published UNIDIR, April 2020. Contributions by John Borrie, Hassan Elbahtimy, Ulrich Kühn, Tanya Ogilvie-White, Ankit Panda, and Manpreet Sethi;
• The Doomsday Clock meets the coronavirus, Rachel Bronson, The Hill, May 14, 2020;
• 2020 Doomsday Clock Statement: It is 100 seconds to midnight, Bulletin of Atomic Scientists.

Webinar recording

• Facebook recording of the webinar livestream.

Event flyer

• Click here for the event flyer. For more information contact John Hallam

Event co-sponsors: Abolition 2000, Basel Peace Office, Human Survival Project, People for Nuclear Disarmament, Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (PNND), World Future Council.