Leftist icon Noam Chomsky told The New Statesman that human civilization is approaching the “most dangerous point in human history,” in an extended interview with the outlet released Wednesday.
“We’re approaching the most dangerous point in human history,” Chomsky, 93, told the outlet. He said he remembers writing his first article in elementary school in February 1939 on the fall of Austria, Czechoslovakia and various other European cities and countries, saying that the “grim cloud of fascism is spreading over the whole world.”
Chomsky went on to say that he hasn’t changed his opinion since he wrote the piece as a 10-year-old and that things have “just gotten worse” in the clip shared Wednesday on Twitter. (RELATED: Stephen Hawking Had One Clear Warning About Aliens. Scientists Are Ignoring It)
In a wide-ranging interview, Noam Chomsky, speaks to @georgeeaton about Brexit, the war in Ukraine and the return of Donald Trump. pic.twitter.com/DxFzYcSlBd
— The New Statesman (@NewStatesman) April 6, 2022
“The Doomsday Clock, of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, under Trump, they abandoned minutes, moved to seconds, hundred seconds to midnight. That’s where it is now because the threats are accumulating,” Chomsky continued. “We’re approaching the most dangerous point in human history. Nothing like it before. We are now facing the prospect of destruction of organized human life on Earth from environmental destruction, and not in the remote future.”
“We are approaching irreversible turning points which will not be, cannot be dealt with any longer. It doesn’t mean everybody’s going to die, but it means moving to a future where the lucky ones will die more quickly,” Chomsky concluded in the clip.
Chomsky’s comments mirror those he made in 2011 after Republicans took over Congress in 2010. The life-long scholar said, “you could almost interpret it a kind of death knell for the species,” because of the Republican’s perceptions on climate change. “If this was happening in some small country, in you know maybe Monaco or something, it wouldn’t matter much, but when it’s happening in the richest, most powerful country in the world – it’s a danger to the survival of the species. Nobody else is going to do much if the United States doesn’t do a lot, not just some but take the lead. So we’re essentially saying let’s kiss each other goodbye.”