Doomsday clock moves forward from 11:53 to 11:55.

 

'Doomsday Clock' Moves Nearer Midnight

 

By RAPHAEL G. SATTER

Associated Press Writer

Published January 17, 2007, 10:53 AM CST

 

LONDON -- The world has nudged closer to a nuclear apocalypse and environmental disaster, a trans-Atlantic group of prominent scientists warned Wednesday, pushing the hand of its symbolic Doomsday Clock two minutes closer to midnight.

 

It was the fourth time since the end of the Cold War that the clock has ticked forward, this time from 11:53 to 11:55, amid fears over what the scientists are describing as "a second nuclear age" prompted largely by atomic standoffs with Iran and North Korea.

 

But the organization added that the "dangers posed by climate change are nearly as dire as those posed by nuclear weapons."

 

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, founded in 1945 as a newsletter distributed among nuclear physicists concerned by the possibility of nuclear war, has since grown into an organization focused more generally on manmade threats to the survival of human civilization.

 

"As scientists, we understand the dangers of nuclear weapons and their devastating effects, and we are learning how human activities and technologies are affecting climate systems in ways that may forever change life on Earth," said Stephen Hawking, the renowned cosmologist and mathematician.

 

"As citizens of the world, we have a duty to alert the public to the unnecessary risks that we live with every day, and to the perils we foresee if governments and societies do not take action now to render nuclear weapons obsolete and to prevent further climate change."

 

The bulletin's clock, which for 60 years has followed the rise and fall of nuclear tensions, would now also measure climate change, the bulletin's editor Mark Strauss told The Associated Press.

 

"There's a realization that we are changing our climate for the worse," he said, "That would have catastrophic effects. Although the threat is not as dire as that of nuclear weapons right now, in the long term we are looking at a serious threat."

 

The threat of nuclear war, however, remains by far the organization's most pressing concern. "It's important to emphasize 50 of today's nuclear weapons could kill 200 million people," he said.

 

The decisions to move the clock is made by the bulletin's board, which is composed of prominent scientists and policy experts, in coordination with the group's sponsors.

 

Since it was set to seven minutes to midnight in 1947, the hand has been moved 18 times, including Wednesday's move.

 

It came closest to midnight -- just two minutes away -- in 1953, following the successful test of a hydrogen bomb by the United States. It has been as far away as 17 minutes, set there in 1991 following the demise of the Soviet Union.

Great...just remind me the day before we 'spring' ahead!!!!

 

The decisions to move the clock is made by the bulletin's board, which is composed of prominent scientists and policy experts, in coordination with the group's sponsors.

I'd be interested in hearing who sponsors this.

 

Atleast now that climate is assessed for the 'Doomsday Clock' we can be assured it'll never fall below 11:55 again.

We're all going to die!

 

We all are...act accordingly.

Edited January 17, 200719 yr by RibbieRubarb

I'd be interested in hearing who sponsors this.

 

The decision to move the clock is made by the bulletin's board, composed of scientists and policy experts, in coordination with the group's sponsors, who include Hawking and science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke.

 

IIRC, the only sponsors are other scientists and the like. It's a non-profit, and, again, IIRC (which is by no means a sure thing) the magazine doesn't accept advertising. A chum of mine who I haven't seen in a while was a subscriber and I used read the mag. Didn't understand it, but I read it.

Ridiculous.

Ridiculous.

 

What is? A metaphorical icon symbolizing the the probability of mutuallly assured destruction that varies with seminal world events? The fact that renowned scientists like Eugene Rabinowitch and Robert Oppenheimer and Leo Szilard and Einstein questioned their own roles in the creation of horrific tools of destruction and death to launch a journal to convey their concerns to other scientists and to the public? The recognition that we can do ourselves in with any of a number of manmade horrors, not just nuclear anhilation?

 

We are witnessing a new era of nuclear proliferation. As a nation, we are leading the pack. We're more at risk of a nuclear crisis now than we were at the end of the cold war and setting the Doomsday Clock forward is recognition of that fact.

 

Sorry, but ridiculous how?

We are witnessing a new era of nuclear proliferation. As a nation, we are leading the pack. We're more at risk of a nuclear crisis now than we were at the end of the cold war and setting the Doomsday Clock forward is recognition of that fact.

 

Sorry, but ridiculous how?

If nothing else, the situations with Iran and North Korea and the way they've developed since the last move absoslutely justify a move of the clock.

I thought I read this in the Sun Times 2 weeks ago.

 

I have been waiting like a whole day and I am still alive!

I have been waiting like a whole day and I am still alive!

 

No, you're not. You live in Michigan City.

I think the clock is ridiculous, not the possibility of destruction.

It'll happen when the Cubs win the World Series.

It'll happen when the Cubs win the World Series.

 

Whew! I was starting to get worried.