Five Minutes to Doomsday
The famous Doomsday Clock has just ticked closer to midnight.
Two years ago, the symbolic clock that represents how close we are to global disaster, was moved back a minute to six minutes to midnight. This week, the scientists who maintain the clock, moved it forward again to five minutes to midnight.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (BAS) announced that in the last two years, things have gotten even more dangerous for the future of Planet Earth:
“Faced with clear and present dangers of nuclear proliferation and climate change, and the need to find sustainable and safe sources of energy, world leaders are failing to change business as usual. Inaction on key issues including climate change, and rising international tensions motivate the movement of the clock.
As we see it, the major challenge at the heart of humanity’s survival in the 21st century is how to meet energy needs for economic growth in developing and industrial countries without further damaging the climate, exposing people to loss of health and community, and without risking further spread of nuclear weapons, and in fact setting the stage for global reductions.”
Here’s a graph of the “time” on the Doomsday Clock since it was created in 1947 at the birth of the Nuclear Age:
And more info is at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.