The Doomsday Clock Is Now 30 Seconds Closer To Midnight

[WePurrsevere]

Source: NPR

The minute hand on the Doomsday Clock ticked closer to midnight Wednesday, as the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists said they're seeing an increase in dangers to humanity, from climate change to nuclear warfare. The group took the "unprecedented" step of moving the clock 30 seconds closer to midnight, to leave it at two-and-a-half minutes away.

The setting is the closest the clock has come to midnight since 1953, when scientists moved it to two minutes from midnight after seeing both the U.S. and the Soviet Union test hydrogen bombs.

"Make no mistake, this has been a difficult year," Rachel Bronson, executive director and publisher of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, said as the new setting was announced Thursday.


Explaining its move, the Bulletin's Science and Security Board said:

"Over the course of 2016, the global security landscape darkened as the international community failed to come effectively to grips with humanity's most pressing existential threats, nuclear weapons and climate change ... This already-threatening world situation was the backdrop for a rise in strident nationalism worldwide in 2016, including in a U.S. presidential campaign during which the eventual victor, Donald Trump, made disturbing comments about the use and proliferation of nuclear weapons and expressed disbelief in the overwhelming scientific consensus on climate change."

Read more: http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/01/26/511592700/the-doomsday-clock-is-now-30-seconds-closer-to-midnight

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The closest to midnight since 1953 and yet I suspect we may get closer over the next 4 yrs.

[Initech]

1. So does that mean we're 2 minutes to midnight then?

[Hugin]

3. I still say the clock is slow.

Seems to me, it's at least 5 past the hour.

But, I'm an Optimist.

[longship]

4. Some obviously do not understand the Doomsday Clock concept.

Midnight means Armageddon. There is no five minutes after midnight on the Doomsday Clock.

My best to you.

[Hugin]

5. You're assuming we haven't already passed the tipping point.

It seems to me, if you include other factors such as climate change and the mass extinctions which surround us that the boat has sailed on doomsday. We're just dancing in the afterglow. Who says Doomsday isn't a long drawn out affair?

But, that's just my view.

[heaven05]

6. I agree

[longship]

11. Who? The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. That's who. nt

[ffr]

8. Just as there is no way of turning back the clock after election day. People,

this is your second and last warning.

No more abashed silence. Democracy and our futures are under siege by an illegitimate regime.

[Bengus81]

2. Seems like a Nostradamus moment to me.........

That in the movie the Dead Zone the crazed,war mongering,can't wait to nuke someone President's last name is Stillson and now this crazed,war mongering,can't wait to nuke someone Pres has a SOS with loads of power named Tillerson.

[ffr]

7. Official announcement video... tick tock tick tock tick tock

Expert advice is crucial, if governments are going to deal with complex global threats. The (can't make out the word) is extremely concerned about the willingness of governments, INCLUDING THE CURRENT U.S. ADMINISTRATION to ignore or discount sound science and empirical evidence and considerate expertise during their decision making processes. Facts are stubborn things...

[ffr]

9. ...the next four years??? How about the next four days? We'll be lucky to survive more KGOP

dirty tricks on dismantling our democratic institutions.

[Nash Teeth]

10. As if I weren't already nervous enough

now the guys with the fake clock are scaring me. Which annoys me. As if they have accurate ways to measure the factors they consider when moving the fake clock hands.