Thirty Seconds to Midnight – The Final Wake-Up Call

By Filmmaker Regis Tremblay

A documentary that pulls no punches

This ambitious 90-minute film is now being shown around the country and abroad.  What follows is Tremblay’s introduction:

 

I have done my best to state what few others dare to say. Humanity is on the brink of extinction! Nuclear power is not safe. 48 of America’s nuclear power plants are leaking and there is no way to get rid of nuclear waste. America’s reckless provocations of both Russia and China, two nuclear-armed countries, risk a nuclear holocaust from which no one survives. Climate change and global warming, if not mitigated immediately, will end the human experiment on earth sooner rather than later.

 

A shocking documentary that traces the origins of U.S. genocides, military interventions and wars from the 15th century when the white, colonial explorers first came to the Americas to the very present. American Exceptionalism, Manifest Destiny, and the right to claim the earth and its resources as their own are the beliefs that are the foundation of American foreign policy in the 21st Century that has humanity on the brink of extinction.

 

Dr. Helen Caldicot, Ray McGovern, Chris Hedges, Ann Wright, Peter Kuznick, Bill McKibben,

David Vine, Bruce Gagnon, and other activists, scholars, and authors explain and clarify the crisis and threats to life on the planet.

 

The only real hope lies in the result of the epic battle for humanity’s survival between two contrasting worldviews. On one side is the unipolar, capitalist world-domination by the U.S. enforced by the most lethal military the world has ever seen.

 

On the other side is a view offered by Russia, China and the BRICS nations; why not a multi-

polar world based on respect, the sovereignty of all nations, international law, the equal value of all people, and cooperation.

 

The Doomsday Clock is a symbolic clock face that represents a countdown to a possible global nuclear catastrophe. It has been maintained since 1947 by members of a group called Chicago Atomic Scientists, who had participated in the Manhattan Project.  In 2015, they moved the hands to three minutes to midnight, reflecting Climate Change. In January 2017, they moved the hands 30 seconds closer to midnight. The clock is now at 2:30 to midnight.

 

Because of rising tensions between the U.S., Russia and China, the dangers of a nuclear catastrophe are worse now than during the Cold War. Compounding the situation is nuclear power, which is not safe. Fukushima, Chernobyl, and Three Mile Island are just the most recent nuclear disasters. Added to that, 48 of America’s 64 nuclear power plants are leaking radioactive material.

 

The third existential threat to life on the planet is climate change, which if left unmitigated will make life on Earth nearly impossible much sooner than anyone expected.

 

And so, I titled my new documentary Thirty Seconds to Midnight – The Final Wake Up Call to reflect the near-term extinction of all life on the planet. No one can predict just when extinction will happen, but the threat of a nuclear exchange and the expected consequences of climate change are pushing the Doomsday Clock closer to midnight.

 

So, here we are, humanity’s epic battle for survival. An old paradigm based on white, colonial domination and empire versus the shared vision of others who are working for a world based on justice, international law, cooperation and the prosperity of all people.

 

My goal for this film is to continue to educate and open the eyes of Americans and people around the world about the most pernicious and destructive global forces that are threatening life on the planet.

 

Regis Tremblay