WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The keepers of the "Doomsday Clock" plan to move its hands forward next Wednesday to reflect what they call worsening nuclear and climate threats to the world.
The symbolic clock, maintained by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, currently is set at seven minutes to midnight, with midnight marking global catastrophe.
The group did not say in which direction the hands would move. But in a news release previewing an event next Wednesday, they said the change was based on "worsening nuclear, climate threats" to the world.
"The major new step reflects growing concerns about a 'Second Nuclear Age' marked by grave threats, including: nuclear ambitions in Iran and North Korea, unsecured nuclear materials in Russia and elsewhere, the continuing 'launch-ready' status of 2,000 of the 25,000 nuclear weapons held by the U.S. and Russia, escalating terrorism, and new pressure from climate change for expanded civilian nuclear power that could increase proliferation risks," the release reads.
The clock was last pushed forward by two minutes to seven minutes to midnight in 2002 amid concerns about the proliferation of nuclear, biological and other weapons and the threat of terrorism.
When it was created by the magazine's staff in 1947, 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 U.S. 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.
There's a mountain at the border
of the universal order.
And at the top of this stormy rock
there it stands: The Doomsday Clock.
It does not show the elapsing time
but indicates how war and crime
destroy the world we still live in.
Every conflict, every sin
influences the clock's hand.
So we'll reach the whole world's end
at twelve o'clock upon its face.
That's the moment when our race
will be extinguished by itself.
Still we'd have some time till twelve
to improve the situation
because every moderation
would slow down the hand's advance.
Ticking towards midnight: Doomsday clock since 1947
LONDON, Jan 17 (AFP) Jan 17, 2007 The movements of the symbolic Doomsday Clock, set up by the The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, a prominent group of international scientists, together with reasons cited.
- 1947: Seven minutes to midnight
The clock first appears as a symbol of nuclear danger.
- 1949: Three minutes to midnight
The Soviet Union explodes its first atomic bomb.
- 1953: Two minutes to midnight
The United States and the Soviet Union test thermonuclear devices within nine months of one another.
- 1960: Seven minutes to midnight
Growing public understanding that nuclear weapons made war between the major powers irrational amid greater international scientific cooperation and efforts to aid poor nations.
- 1963: Twelve minutes to midnight
The US and Soviet signing of the Partial Test Ban Treaty "provides the first tangible confirmation of what has been the Bulletin's conviction in recent years -- that a new cohesive force has entered the interplay of forces shaping the fate of mankind."
- 1968: Seven minutes to midnight
France and China acquire nuclear weapons; wars rage in the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent, and Vietnam; world military spending increases while development funds shrink.
- 1969: Ten minutes to midnight
The US Senate ratifies the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
- 1972: Twelve minutes to midnight
The United States and the Soviet Union sign the first Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.
- 1974: Nine minutes to midnight
SALT talks reach an impasse; India develops a nuclear weapon.
- 1980: Seven minutes to midnight
The deadlock in US-Soviet arms talks continues; nationalistic wars and terrorist actions increase; the gulf between rich and poor nations grows wider.
- 1981: Four minutes to midnight
Both superpowers develop more weapons for fighting a nuclear war. Terrorist actions, repression of human rights, and conflicts in Afghanistan, Poland and South Africa add to world tension.
- 1984: Three minutes to midnight
The arms race accelerates.
- 1988: Six minutes to midnight
The United States and the Soviet Union sign a treaty to eliminate intermediate-range nuclear forces; superpower relations improve; more nations actively oppose nuclear weapons.
- 1990: Ten minutes to midnight
The Cold War ends as the Iron Curtain falls.
- 1991: Seventeen minutes to midnight
The United States and the Soviet Union sign the long-stalled Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) and announce further unilateral cuts in tactical and strategic nuclear weapons.
- 1995: Fourteen minutes to midnight
Further arms reductions stall while global military spending continues at Cold War levels. Risks of nuclear "leakage" from poorly guarded former Soviet facilities increase.
- 1998: Nine minutes to midnight
India and Pakistan "go public" with nuclear tests. The United States and Russia cannot agree on further deep reductions in their nuclear stockpiles.
- 2002: Seven minutes to midnight
The United States rejects a series of arms control treaties and announces it will withdraw from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. Terrorists seek to acquire and use nuclear and biological weapons.
- 2007: Five minutes to midnight.
North Korea's recent test of a nuclear weapon, Iran's nuclear ambitions, a renewed emphasis on the military utility of nuclear weapons," and the continued presence of 26,000 US and Russian nuclear weapons are cited.
Tick, tock ... The Doomsday Clock is a metaphor for threats to humanity from technology. (rzoze19, Shutterstock)
The iconic Doomsday Clock remains poised at five minutes until midnight, the Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists announced Tuesday.
The clock is no doomsday device rather, it's a visual metaphor for the danger of a "civilization-threatening technological catastrophe." Every year, the board analyzes international threats, particularly nuclear arsenals and climate change, and decides where the minute hand on the Doomsday Clock should rest. The closer it is to midnight, the closer the world is to doom.
"As always, new technologies hold the promise of doing great good, supplying new sources of clean energy, curing disease, and otherwise enhancing our lives. From experience, however, we also know that new technologies can be used to diminish humanity and destroy societies," the board wrote. "We can manage our technology, or become victims of it. The choice is ours, and the Clock is ticking." [How the Doomsday Clock Has Changed (Infographic)]
It's the end of the world as we know it
The Doomsday Clock is the invention of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, a publication started by some of the researchers who worked on the atomic bomb. The wife of one of these researchers, Martyl Langsdorf, was a painter. In 1947, she illustrated the first Bulletin cover to feature the Doomsday Clock set at that point at 11:53 p.m.
'We can manage our technology, or become victims of it. The choice is ours, and the Clock is ticking.'
- The Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists
Langsdorf died in March 2013, but her creation lives on. In January 2012, the Bulletin's board set the minute hand of the clock at 11:55 p.m., one minute closer to midnight than the previous year. The decision was made based on the current state of nuclear arsenals around the globe as well as accidents such as the Fukushima nuclear meltdown that occurred in 2011 after a major earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Biosecurity is also taken into account, with the creation of an airborne strain of H5N1 flu worrying scientists in 2012.
This year, the board chose not to ease up on their warnings of doomsday, because of stalled relations between the United States and Russia, two countries with massive nuclear arsenals. After Russia offered political asylum to former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, who leaked classified documents about U.S. surveillance, President Barack Obama cancelled a summit with Russia's Vladimir Putin, meaning there has been little to no progress on plans to shrink nuclear arsenals, according to the Bulletin.
Meanwhile, efforts to combat climate change are struggling as well, the Bulletin board warned. The United States, European Union and Australia all show wavering commitment to renewable energy, and Japan has backed off promises to voluntarily reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Hope for humanity?
The Bulletin board listed some steps humanity should take to secure its future, including demanding that the United States and Russia reopen dialogues on nuclear weapons. The board also urged political leadership on climate change and advocated for new rules to manage leaps forward in information technology.
The closest the Doomsday Clock has ever come to midnight was in 1953, when the minute hand ticked to 11:58 p.m. after the first test of the hydrogen bomb. It was at its most optimistic in 1991, when the Bulletin board set the time at 17 minutes to midnight as the Cold War ended.
Since 1991, however, the clock has been ticking gradually toward doom, as it became clear that total nuclear disarmament would not be happening.
Libertatem Prius!
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The end of civilisation is nigh, according to ‘doomsayers’. Picture: Thinkstock. Source: News Limited
DOOMSAYERS, prepare your bunkers. The ‘Doomsday Clock’ is ticking.
The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, a group founded by the creators of the atomic bomb, say the world is now three minutes from a catastrophic midnight and the closest it has been in 30 years.
The clock moved forward two minutes, citing global warming and the proliferation of nuclear weaponry as the world’s greatest threats.
Atomic testing in the 1950s saw the Doomsday Clock move closer to midnight than it has ever been. Picture shows testing in the Australian outback. Source: News Corp Australia
“This is about Doomsday; this is about the end of civilisation as we know it,” Bulletin executive director Kennette Benedict said.
“The probability of global catastrophe is very high, and the actions needed to reduce the risks of disaster must be taken very soon.”
The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists was created in 1945 and the clock first appeared two years later on the Bulletin’s magazine cover. The minute hand has moved as far from midnight as 17 minutes (1991) but was once just two minutes away (1953).
Climate scientist Richard Somerville said a ‘major climatic disruption’ could be imminent. Picture: Cliff Owen / AP Source: AP
The last time the clock was at three minutes to midnight was in 1983 during the Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union.
Richard Somerville, a member of the 20-member board of scientists at the Bulletin, said the burning of fossil fuels will lead to a “major climatic disruption globally”.
‘The urgency has nothing to do with politics or ideology,” Dr Somerville said.
“It arises from the laws of physics and biology and chemistry”.
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Nikita Khrushchev:"We will bury you"
"Your grandchildren will live under communism."
“You Americans are so gullible.
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