LETTER: Outlook is bleak for humanity

The Doomsday Clock is set every year by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists as a way of showing how much metaphorical time we have left in which to avert catastrophe for mankind. It’s currently at 100 seconds to midnight — the closest it has been to apocalypse.

The volatile and escalating situation between Ukraine, Russia and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation cannot be resolved by military force or political subjugation.

Any act of brinkmanship could result in a deadly chain of events that neither Russian President Vladimir Putin nor US President Joe Biden will be able to control and contain. There would be grim global consequences to a nuclear exchange; deadly nuclear debris does not respect neutrality or geographical frontiers.

The constellation of global events is spinning out of control as politicians turn to military leaders for solutions. The fate of the world lies in the hands of irrational men who do not realise that war cannot be an instrument of peace.

It was US president John F Kennedy who warned during the Cuban missile crisis that, in the aftermath of a nuclear war, the living will envy the dead.

Global suicide is no defence; peace and diplomacy are the most powerful weapons of survival.

Farouk Araie
Gauteng

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