In just a few hours the time has come: the new year 2024 begins. We have already explained to you how to start 0:00 a.m. on January 1st, 2024 with timpani and trumpets with Phil Collins (drum roll at 0:00 a.m. in “In The Air Tonight”) and Depeche Mode (“Never Let Me Down Again”).
For pessimists instead of optimists, here’s another offer: Start the New Year with the Trinity bomb explosion of 1945. “Oppy” makes it possible. Anyone who switches on Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” at 10:04 p.m. and 12 seconds will experience the nuclear weapon explosion that changed the world forever at 12:04 a.m. “Start the New Year with a Bang” is the phrase written by a Facebook user.
Too macabre? You can see it like that. However, 2023 wasn’t all that nice, was it? Putin, the Middle East, climate catastrophe – and next year Donald Trump is preparing to be elected US President for a second time.
In fact, Christopher Nolan’s film about the “father of the atomic bomb” J. Robert Oppenheimer has never been more relevant. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Doomsday Clock, also better known in Germany under the international name Doomsday Clock, indicates the risk of a global catastrophe caused by the climate or nuclear weapons, and based on the saying “It is five to twelve”. In 1947, the clock began to show “seven minutes to twelve”. The positioning, which always reflects the assessment of the past twelve months at the beginning of the year, reached its highest risk value to date on January 24, 2023: 90 seconds until doomsday.
The reason for this is the lack of planning among industrialized countries in dealing with climate change, as well as Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. The world is closer to nuclear war than ever before.
But let’s see. 2024 can only be better than this year.