Letters to the Editor: Chernobyl Children International advocate says we can turn back the hands of the doomsday clock 

Adi Roche highlights the continuing occupation of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and the recent attack on the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine

Jon Wolfsthal, Asha George, and Steve Fetter revealed this week that the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Doomsday Clock had bee reset to 85 seconds to midnight. Picture: Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP 

The decision by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists to move the doomsday clock to just 85 seconds to midnight earlier this week should alarm every government and every citizen. Humanity has never been closer to catastrophe, and the world has never been more unsafe.

This decision reflects a convergence of existential risks, all of which are man-made. The war in Ukraine, the weaponisation of nuclear power, climate breakdown, and the rapid erosion of international arms control agreements together create what the scientists describe as a time of “unprecedented danger”.