Professor Noam Chomsky (anti-racist Jewish American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, political activist, author of over 100 books, social critic, and Professor Emeritus at the 93-Nobel-Laureate Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)) (2018): “The most striking features [2018 US mid-term elections] are brutally clear. Humanity faces two imminent existential threats: environmental catastrophe and nuclear war. These were virtually ignored in the campaign rhetoric and general coverage. There was plenty of criticism of the Trump administration, but scarcely a word about by far the most ominous positions the administration has taken: increasing the already dire threat of nuclear war, and racing to destroy the physical environment that organized human society needs in order to survive. These are the most critical and urgent questions that have arisen in all of human history. The fact that they scarcely arose in the campaign is truly stunning — and carries some important, if unpleasant, lessons about our moral and intellectual culture… Several states had important ballot initiatives addressing the impending environmental catastrophe. The fossil fuel industry spent huge, sometimes record-breaking, sums to defeat the initiatives — including a carbon tax in the mostly Democratic state of Washington — and mostly succeeded. We should recognize that these are extraordinary crimes against humanity. They proceed with little notice… The concentration of wealth and enhancement of corporate power translate automatically to decline of democracy. Research in academic political science has revealed that a large majority of voters are literally disenfranchised, in that their own representatives pay no attention to their wishes but listen to the voices of the donor class…” (C.J. Polychroniou, “Moral depravity defines U.S. politics”, Truthout, 21 November 2018: https://truthout.org/articles/noam-chomsky-moral-depravity-defines-us-politics/
[Editor: Famed theoretical physicist and cosmologist Professor Stephen Hawking of the 118-Nobel-Laureate University of Cambridge, and a member of board of sponsors of The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (2007): “We foresee great peril if governments and societies do not take action now to render nuclear weapons obsolete and to prevent further climate change” ( Will Dunham, “Nuclear, climate perils push Doomsday Clock ahead”, Reuters, 22 January 2007: https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN17314370 ) ].