The keepers of the 鈥淒oomsday Clock鈥� 鈥� a measure of dangers posed to civilisation 鈥� moved its hands forward by 2 minutes on Wednesday to reflect what its keepers call worsening nuclear and climate threats to the world.
The symbolic clock, maintained by the Bulletin of Atomic 杏吧原创s, is now set at 5 minutes to midnight, with midnight marking global catastrophe. It is the closest the clock has been to midnight than at any time since the Cold War.
鈥淭he major new step reflects growing concerns about a 鈥楽econd Nuclear Age鈥� marked by grave threats,鈥� the magazine鈥檚 assembled experts said, including:
Advertisement
聲 Nuclear ambitions in Iran and North Korea
聲 Unsecured nuclear materials in Russia and elsewhere
聲 The continuing 鈥榣aunch-ready鈥� status of 2000 of the 25,000 nuclear weapons held by the US and Russia
聲 Escalating terrorism
聲 New pressure from climate change for expanded civilian nuclear power that could increase proliferation risks.
Threats without enemies
For the first time, climate change has been added to the prospect of nuclear annihilation as the greatest threats to humankind.
鈥淗umankind鈥檚 collective impacts on the biosphere, climate and oceans are unprecedented,鈥� said the English Astronomer Royal, Sir Martin Rees, one of the scientists attending the event.
鈥淭hese environmentally driven threats 鈥� 鈥榯hreats without enemies鈥� 鈥� should loom as large in the political perspective as did the East/West political divide during the Cold War era,鈥� he added.
The announcement was made at simultaneous events held by the magazine in London and in Washington DC, US, including remarks from Rees and physicist Stephen Hawking.
鈥淭he world has not faced such perilous choices鈥� since the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Bulletin announced.
Back and forth
The clock was last pushed forward by 2 minutes 鈥� to 7 minutes to midnight 鈥� in 2002 after the US withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, and amid concerns about the proliferation of nuclear, biological and other weapons, and the threat of terrorism.
When it was created by the magazine鈥檚 staff in 1947 鈥� shortly after the US dropped its A-bombs on Japan 鈥� it was initially set at seven minutes to midnight and has moved 17 times since then.
It was as close as two minutes to midnight in 1953 following US and Soviet hydrogen bomb tests, and as far away as 17 minutes to midnight in 1991, after the superpowers reached agreement on a nuclear arms reductions.