Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) reacts to Doomsday Clock setting as protests continue at RAF Lakenheath
A nuclear weapons campaign group featured on a BBC documentary protesting against a Suffolk RAF base’s plans to possibly house some of the armaments said the Doomsday Clock remaining at 90 seconds to midnight for a second year in a row must be ‘a wake up call for the entire world’.
The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), who has held numerous protests at RAF Lakenheath as it believes plans are afoot for nuclear weapons to be stored there, said the clock reflected ‘the continued state of unprecedented danger the world faces.’
The Doomsday Clock, maintained since 1947, is said to show the likelihood of a human-made global catastrophe in the opinion of the members of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
The clock featured on BBC Panorama’s ‘Nuclear Armageddon – how close are we?’ documentary on BBC 2 on Thursday, alongside a piece about the CND protests at RAF Lakenheath.
Kate Hudson, CND general secretary, said: “The Doomsday Clock remaining at 90 seconds to midnight must be a wake up call for the entire world.
“Nuclear-armed states are increasing and modernising their arsenals, while their allies are rearming with newer and more lethal conventional technologies.
“The world is closer to nuclear war than it has ever been and the failure to end conflicts, from Ukraine to the Middle East, increases this risk by the day.
“We're fast approaching the point of no return. CND calls on all those who want peace to prevail to join us in doing everything we can to turn back the clock.”
The Bulletin said the decision to keep the clock at the same time was due to concern over the continuation of the war in Ukraine, the conflict in Gaza and the crisis in nuclear arms control.
Though some progress had been made on tackling climate change, technologies such as AI also posed an area of concern which they said ‘could magnify disinformation and corrupt the global information environment.’