It has become a sport on social media to mock citizens who have not yet decided how to vote in this year’s US presidential election, especially if they say they need “more information” first. to make their choice. Needling is valid, up to a point; after all, Kamala Harris has been vice president for the past 3.75 years, and Donald Trump has been president for the previous four years. Google both names; “Insufficient information” won’t be the first search result, I promise.

Still, many people (including, apparently, a few of the editors who work for me) need deadlines to focus their decision-making, and Election Day is an effective incentive. You don’t believe me? In the 2020 U.S. presidential election, in the darkest days of the COVID-19 pandemic, 27% of voters cast ballots in person on Election Day, even though waiting in line to vote could have cost them their lives .

So if you’re a U.S. citizen waiting for the Election Day deadline to push you to make a decision in this year’s presidential race, I have some suggestions for how you might use your time profitably until then. Because you read it Bulletin of Atomic ScientistsI suspect you’re probably somewhat concerned about avoiding global catastrophes caused by nuclear weapons and climate change (as well as various disruptive technologies, including artificial intelligence and potentially dangerous advances in gene editing, which could also endanger future civilization). decades).

Over the past few months, the NewsletterThe authors and editors of have presented a set of substantial but also accessible reporting that analyzes the election in terms of existential threats and how they might be diminished and managed. The following is a collection of articles from this media coverage, carefully selected for the benefit of Americans and concerned citizens around the world who have limited reading time between now and Election Day.

An existential timeline of the Trump/Pence and Biden/Harris presidencies

As Kamala Harris and Donald Trump reach the end of their presidential campaigns, the NewsletterEditors look at how the last two U.S. administrations have handled the world’s most dangerous threats.

An interactive multimedia presentation by five Newsletter publishers.

How Demagogues Destroy Democracy: A Global Step-by-Step Guide

Today’s demagogues are the harbingers of a new form of 21st century despotism: a corrupt “shadow democracy” in which periodic elections are held but the rich become super-rich and omnipotent, while the majority of the population is prey to a feeling of helplessness. .

By John Keane, professor of politics at the University of Sydney, Australia, and author of several books on despotism.

On November 5, AI is also on the lists

The 2024 elections will decide whether America leads or retreats from its crucial role in ensuring that artificial intelligence develops in line with democratic values.

By Ali Nouri, lecturer at Princeton University and former deputy aide to President Biden.

Project 2025: The Right’s Conspiracy to Torpedo Global Climate Action

The Republican Party is threatening to use a potential second Trump term as a weapon against any domestic climate action. But what happens in the United States does not stay in the United States.

By Michael E. Mann, director of the Center for Science, Sustainability and Media at the University of Pennsylvania.

Trump has a strategic plan for the country: prepare for nuclear war

If elected, Trump’s policy agenda – Project 2025 – would push the United States into a costly, dangerous and destabilizing nuclear confrontation, unprecedented since the darkest days of the Cold War.

By Joe Cirincione, longtime nuclear policy analyst.

Trump says he would disband pandemic preparedness office again

Donald Trump has said he will disband the White House office responsible for preventing and responding to pandemics. It’s not the first time.

By Erik English, Associate Multimedia Editor Newsletter.

Those who have more reading time between now and November 5, 2024 will also be able to check out all the stories in the September issue from our bimonthly magazine, “How to Protect Elections and Democracy in a Critical Political Year.” The issue features 10 articles that feature election information you won’t find elsewhere or that you won’t find presented in the context of the existential threats that the Newsletter specializes and that other media tend to underestimate. Even more ambitious readers-voters might take a look collection pagewhich serves as an archive for all our articles related to the 2024 elections.

Finally, there is a satirical piece which did not appear in the Newsletter but it will, I suspect, make you laugh, even in these tense final days before Tuesday’s presidential election. Depending on your political leanings, you may laugh heartily, sadly, bitterly, or even angrily, but, I predict, you will laugh. Enjoy Election Day and all the other benefits and obligations that democracy brings. Long may it last, in the United States and around the world.