Doomsday Clock Now Set a 3 Minues to Midnight
Posted on January 23, 2015
The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists Science and Security Board moved the Doomsday Clock forward two minutes yesterday. It is now set at 3 minutes to midnight. The Board of scientists and security experts shifted the clock because of the threats of climate change and nuclear weapons. The Board also warned that the probability of a global catastrophe is "very high."
The Board also issued the following warning: "In 2015, unchecked climate change, global nuclear weapons modernizations, and outsized nuclear weapons arsenals pose extraordinary and undeniable threats to the continued existence of humanity, and world leaders have failed to act with the speed or on the scale required to protect citizens from potential catastrophe. These failures of political leadership endanger every person on Earth."
A full statement from the Board can be found here. The last time the Doomsday Clock was at three minutes to midnight was 1983, when the Boards said, "U.S.-Soviet relations were at their iciest." The clock started out a seven minutes to midnight when it was created in 1947. A Washington Post story lists and explains the significant moves of the clock since it was created.
The move closer to midnight comes following a NASA and NOAA report that 2014 was the warmest year on a record since 1880. In the report the scientists say the Earth's average temperature has warmed about 0.8 degrees Celsius (1.4 degrees Fahrenheit) since 1880.
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