Scientists behind a “Doomsday Clock” that measures the likelihood of a global cataclysm are set to announce Tuesday whether civilization is any closer or farther from disaster.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is expected to unveil the minute hand on the metaphorical clock in Washington, D.C. The clock reflects how vulnerable the world is to catastrophe from nuclear weapons, climate change and new technologies, according to the bulletin.
California Gov. Jerry Brown will join former U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz and former U.S. Secretary of Defense William Perry for a discussion at Stanford University after the unveiling.
The scientists behind the bulletin adjusted the clock from five minutes-to-midnight to three minutes-to-midnight last year, citing climate change, modernization of nuclear weapons and outsized nuclear weapons arsenals as “extraordinary and undeniable threats to the continued existence of humanity.”
The minute hand is assessed each year. It has also previously stayed the same and been adjusted in the opposite direction. Most recently in 2010, bulletin scientists cited nuclear talks between the U.S. and Russia and agreement to limit a rise in global temperature for a change from five minutes-to-midnight to six minutes-to-midnight.
This year’s clock is expected to consider tensions between the United States and Russia and the recent North Korean nuclear test.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists was founded in 1945 by University of Chicago scientists who helped develop the first atomic weapons. The clock was created two years later, with midnight symbolizing apocalypse.
The decision to move or leave the clock alone is made by the bulletin’s science and security board, which includes physicists and environmental scientists from around the world, in consultation with the bulletin’s Board of Sponsors, which includes 17 Nobel laureates.
The closest the clock has come to midnight was two minutes away in 1953, when the Soviet Union tested a hydrogen bomb that followed a U.S. hydrogen bomb test.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
what about Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962?
& no consideration for Mid East nuke states: Iran, Israel, S Arabia, Pakistan, India.
Change Doomsday Clock on those req alone.
I think they just need to get a real job…
Global warming is a hoax. The climate changes. We call climate change weather. If the weathermen are unable to accurately predict the weather a month from now we should question how accurate their prediction of a 1 degree temperature increase will be in the year 2099.
The greatest deterrent to a nuclear war is the fact that very few people would probably survive. Those who did survive would have to wonder whether they were the winners or the losers as they dealt with the aftermath. Politicians may not understand morality or basic fiscal responsibility, but most of them do understand self preservation.
WE CAN ONLY PREY THAT M A D CONTINUES TO WORK DETER, PREVENT, PLEASE BEAR IN MIND THE CHINESE HAVE THOUSANDS OF ACRES OF POPPIES UNDER CULTIVATION TO PRODUCE OPIUM FOR DISTRIBUTION FREE TO YOUNG AMERICANS THAT IS THE BIG NEWS TO BE FOREWARNED ABOUT THOSE WILLING TO MAKE EASY MONEY AS DISTRIBUTORS WILL MAKE IT EASY
Please also bear in mind the USA Troops have a base next to a Afghan poppy fields. And that Afghanistan has vast fields of poppies growing for the global addiction. Have a read of “Dope Inc” & see which self-righeous Countries profit from the misery of others…..USA & UK would probably get a big mention.
Global warming is a swindle. One suggests that if a big lie is told often enough for long enough …the people will believe it. And many promoters/countries of it make a lot of money out to it. In my opinion the best salesman on it was Henny Penny’s best friend Big Al “The Sky is falling ” Gore”, appears the Carbon trader, who, in my opinion, stands to make semi- trailer loads of cash out of the swindle.
Yes they need to get a job. How about picking trash along the highways.
Global warming ??? How do they explain all the snow that hit the east coast.
If it is warming it would have been rain then the government would not have shut down.
The global people are going to try to make themselves many trillion of dollars along with companies and countries they are conspiring with. You could ask them about that but they would take the 5th like all criminals.
So, being an “Atomic Scientist” makes one an international Psycho-Political expert?
There is one being that “controls” where this world is heading…. It is clearly layers out for ALL TO SEE and it is called The Book of Revelation!!!
And yes, we are probably 3 minutes until midnight!!!
My Mother told me that in the Bible the first distruction was water thus Noahs’ Ark
Next and last would be by fire. Global Warming?
Thank you
My Mother said the Bible said water would be the first world distruction – thus Noaks’ Ark
And fire would be the last…….Global Warming?
Fire…not uncomfortable sweating…dumbas$
They can do all of their calculations and brain storming they want. Only God knows the day and time of the end of time here on earth. Our job is to strive to do the Father’s work until our time is up. There have been many who guessed over the years that the end was at hand. They were all wrong, as we are still here. When God decides that it’s time, there is nothing anyone can do to stop it. Don’t worry about it. Just make sure you are prepared to meet your maker and account for your actions and your heart.
We are in the warmest part of the Milankovitch cycles. It will start cooling, in several thousand years. We keep letting anthropomorphic global warming hoaxers get their way there won’t be humans around to see it.