My father Marius Kataquapit, a hunter, trapper and traditional person from Attawapiskat, could understand the English language but seldom spoke it. Yet every night he tuned into CBC News and encouraged me to do so. He was curious about everything, and believed it was important be aware of what was going on in the world. He taught me that other outside forces often controlled our lives.
Recently, I tuned into the internet broadcast for the Doomsday Clock, which is maintained and provided by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. They announced January 28 that they have moved the clock’s time a second closer to midnight, the metaphorical point when the world will be consumed by nuclear war. It now stands at 89 seconds. Listening to the panel of scientists reminded me of how my dad must have felt when he tuned into those late-night news broadcasts when I was growing up.
The idea of the Doomsday Clock was developed in 1947 by scientists who helped to build the first atomic weapons during the Second World War. Originally it was meant to symbolize how close we all are to nuclear catastrophe, but in recent decades the warnings now include climate change, artificial intelligence and biological threats.
The Cree of James Bay have always been aware of the nuclear danger in the North. In the late 1950s, we witnessed the long tractor trains of equipment that moved through our communities to remote Cold War-era military stations that were being built on the Hudson Bay coast. These Mid-Canada Radar Line stations closed by 1965.
This incursion shocked us and made us realize that there must be a serious danger to the world. It made everyone realize the insanity of nuclear weapons which could lead to the end of civilization. Modern weapons systems now mean that we are less than half an hour away from nuclear Armageddon. The disturbing part is that this has not changed, and we are still in imminent danger.
The danger of global warming is obvious to everyone in the North. Dad reminded us often that the James Bay winter road started years ago in December before Christmas and lasted until April. Now the winter road lasts for heavy vehicles about two months or less.
In the winter of 2023-24, the season was so mild that it barely lasted over a month for heavy equipment to use. The warming trend is leading to more intense summer forest fires, as was obvious in the summer of 2023 throughout Canada.
Scientists have sounded this alarm many times for decades. NASA recently announced that 2024 was the warmest year on record, topping the previous record set in 2023. It is a proven fact that our world is warming far faster than expected. The perilous predictions of a future of catastrophic storms, flooding and forest fires are now part of our present life on the planet. And it will get worse.
Technologies like artificial intelligence represent an unknown accelerant being thrown into this flammable mix. Even our awareness of reality is manipulated by social media that is manipulated by automated systems that severely diminish the quality of public information, and thus, our democracies. It is getting harder to know what is real and what is not, what is right and what is wrong.
We also have to contend with emerging diseases and the possibility of another pandemic. All these issues are confused and confounded by disinformation, misinformation and non-information that are shouted everywhere online.
If we don’t coherently address the threats that could potentially destroy our world, why would anything else matter? Governments are not doing enough to push back against the wars that bring us closer to nuclear conflict. They are not pushing back on the fossil fuel industry which is the main cause of global warming.
I am grateful to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists for alerting us to the danger we face. However, I am reminded of the fear, frustration and helplessness my dad felt when he looked out into the world for information. Like my dad, I believe in knowing more and being aware, as knowledge is power.