由于2020年，“末日時鐘”現(xiàn)在仍然是有史以來最接近午夜的時刻

由于2020年，“末日時鐘”現(xiàn)在仍然是有史以來最接近午夜的時刻

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has announced that the Doomsday Clock shall remain unchanged at 100 seconds to midnight, the closest it has been to midnight, or "doomsday," since its creation in 1947. This means humanity is still closer to a potential apocalypse than ever.

《原子科學(xué)家公報》宣布，世界末日鐘將保持在離午夜100秒不變，這是自1947年發(fā)明以來最接近午夜或“世界末日”的時刻。這意味著人類比以往任何時候都更接近潛在的末日。

In 2020, the clock was moved forward to just 100 seconds to midnight based on continued nuclear weapons, the limited political response to climate change, and the proliferation of cyber-based disinformation. While there have been some optimistic developments in these fields, such as the decline in demand for fossil fuels, the past year has also seen the COVID-19 pandemic, a global catastrophe that highlighted many vulnerabilities in the way we live on this planet. As such, the clock remains unchanged.

2020年，由于核武器仍在繼續(xù)，政治對氣候變化的反應(yīng)有限，以及基于網(wǎng)絡(luò)的虛假信息的擴(kuò)散，時鐘被提前到了僅剩100秒的午夜。雖然在這些領(lǐng)域出現(xiàn)了一些樂觀的發(fā)展，如化石燃料需求的下降，但過去一年也出現(xiàn)了COVID-19大流行，這是一場全球?yàn)?zāi)難，凸顯了我們在這個星球上生活方式的許多脆弱性。因此，時鐘保持不變。

“The hands of the Doomsday Clock remain at 100 seconds to midnight, as close to midnight as ever," Dr Rachel Bronson, president and CEO of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, said in a statement. "The lethal and fear-inspiring COVID-19 pandemic serves as a historic ‘wake-up call,’ a vivid illustration that national governments and international organizations are unprepared to manage the truly civilization-ending threats of nuclear weapons and climate change.”

《原子科學(xué)家公報》主席兼首席執(zhí)行官雷切爾·布朗森博士在一份聲明中表示:“末日鐘的指針保持在離午夜100秒的位置，一如既往地接近午夜。”“致命性和令人恐懼的COVID-19大流行是一個歷史性的‘警鐘’，生動地說明各國政府和國際組織沒有準(zhǔn)備好應(yīng)對核武器和氣候變化帶來的真正終結(jié)文明的威脅。”

Tom Hale

The Doomsday Clock is a metaphoric countdown towards the likelihood of a human-driven global catastrophe. Midnight represents the point at which a hypothetical apocalypse might happen. The closer the clock is to midnight, the closer humanity is to a potentially worldwide catastrophe.

世界末日時鐘是一種隱喻，預(yù)示著人類驅(qū)動的全球?yàn)?zāi)難的可能性。午夜代表著一個假設(shè)的末日可能發(fā)生的時刻。時鐘離午夜越近，人類就越接近一場潛在的全球性災(zāi)難。

The project was started in 1947 by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, a group of atomic scientists who were becoming increasingly concerned with the proliferation of atomic bombs and the intense geopolitical standoff between the US and the USSR. Many of the scientists were once part of the Manhattan Project, the top-secret US government mission to develop the first atomic bomb in the 1940s, but had become starkly aware of the monster they had created.

該項目于1947年由《原子科學(xué)家公報》發(fā)起。當(dāng)時，一群原子科學(xué)家越來越關(guān)注原子彈的擴(kuò)散以及美蘇之間緊張的地緣政治對峙。許多科學(xué)家都曾參與過曼哈頓計劃，這是美國政府在20世紀(jì)40年代開發(fā)第一顆原子彈的絕密任務(wù)，但他們對自己制造的這個怪物卻了然于心。

At the beginning of the Cold War in 1947, the Doomsday Clock was set to 7 minutes to midnight and was largely concerned with the quarrels of nuclear-armed superpowers. As the tensions of the Cold War continued to wax and wane, the clock hand moved closer and further from the midnight mark. The furthest the clock has ever been was in 1991 — set to 11:43 pm — when the Cold War was drawing to a close following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the dissolution of the USSR, and the signing of the first Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.

1947年冷戰(zhàn)開始時，世界末日時鐘被設(shè)定為距離午夜7分鐘，主要與擁有核武器的超級大國之間的爭吵有關(guān)。隨著冷戰(zhàn)的緊張局勢不斷地起起落落，時鐘的指針離午夜的標(biāo)記越來越近。歷史上時間最長的一次是1991年，被設(shè)定在晚上11點(diǎn)43分。隨著1989年柏林墻倒塌、蘇聯(lián)解體以及第一份削減戰(zhàn)略武器條約的簽署，冷戰(zhàn)即將結(jié)束。

Since then, however, the minute clock has been slowly ticking towards midnight. In recent years, the movement of the Doomsday Clock has primarily been dictated by three factors: the continued stockpiling of nuclear weapons, lack of action on climate change, and so-called “disruptive technologies,” which includes the growing spread of misinformation, cyberwarfare, and artificial intelligence.

然而，從那時起，分鐘就慢慢地走向午夜。近年來，世界末日的時鐘主要由三個因素決定:持續(xù)的核武器儲備、對氣候變化缺乏行動以及所謂的“破壞性技術(shù)”，其中包括錯誤信息、網(wǎng)絡(luò)戰(zhàn)和人工智能的不斷傳播。

It’s easy to think that the idea of atomic war isn’t a concern in the 21st-century, but the threat is still hanging over the fate of our entire planet. Despite progress in reducing Cold War nuclear arsenals, the world’s combined inventory of nuclear weapons was approximately 13,410 warheads in early-2020, around the same levels seen during the 1950s. Up to 1,800 warheads are also primed on high alert and ready for use at very short notice.

人們很容易認(rèn)為，在21世紀(jì)，核戰(zhàn)爭的想法不值得關(guān)注，但這一威脅仍然籠罩著我們整個星球的命運(yùn)。盡管在減少冷戰(zhàn)時期的核武庫方面取得了進(jìn)展，但到2020年初，全球的核武器總存量約為13410枚彈頭，與上世紀(jì)50年代的水平相當(dāng)。多達(dá)1800枚彈頭也處于高度戒備狀態(tài)，隨時可以在很短的時間內(nèi)使用。

However, the "mishandling" of the COVID-19 pandemic by governments, institutions, and a "misled public" shows that humanity remains unprepared to handle the greater threats of both nuclear war and climate change, the Bulletin said. In a separate statement, it accused governments of "abdicating responsibility" and ignoring scientific advice on one of the greatest public health crises the world has seen, but conceded that the election of a US president who supports international cooperation and science-based policy is a positive step forward.

然而，政府、機(jī)構(gòu)和“被誤導(dǎo)的公眾”對COVID-19大流行的“錯誤處理”表明，人類仍然沒有準(zhǔn)備好應(yīng)對核戰(zhàn)爭和氣候變化等更大的威脅。在另一份聲明中，它指責(zé)各國政府“放棄責(zé)任”，忽視對世界上最嚴(yán)重的公共衛(wèi)生危機(jī)之一的科學(xué)建議，但承認(rèn)美國總統(tǒng)的當(dāng)選支持國際合作和基于科學(xué)的政策是向前邁出的積極一步。

“Before COVID-19... the idea of a devastating pandemic was relegated to science fiction and the historical references. I think we all know now that that is not the case," Dr Asha George, Science and Security Board member of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, said in the online announcement. "It never was."

“COVID-19以前……毀滅性的大流行病的概念被歸入科幻小說和歷史參考。我想我們現(xiàn)在都知道事實(shí)并非如此，”《原子科學(xué)家公報》科學(xué)與安全委員會成員阿莎·喬治博士在網(wǎng)上聲明中說。“從來沒有。”