Doomsday Clock: It is now five minutes to midnight!

[link to thewatchers.adorraeli.com]

The Clock is ticking. Scientists yesterday set the hands of “Doomsday Clock” forward one minute. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (BAS) director Kennette Benedict announced on Jan. 10 at a press conference in Washington, D.C. that it’s five minutes to twelve now. In January 2010 the clock points six minutes to twelve so this means we are now symbolically a step closer to doomsday. The Doomsday Clock, which has been running since 1947, is a symbolic clock face that is supposed to indicate how close we are to global disaster. It is maintained by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists at the University of Chicago.

The BAS focused on the current state of nuclear arsenals around the globe, disastrous events and biosecurity issues. The nuclear accident at Japan’s Fukushima plant also highlighted the volatility of relying on nuclear power in areas prone to natural disasters, scientists said. The Bulletin panel found that despite hopes of global agreements about nuclear weapons, nuclear power and climate change in 2010, little progress has been made. The world still has approximately over 20,000 deployed nuclear weapons with enough power to destroy the world’s inhabitants many times over. And climate talks show no progress as expected.

“We’re trying to weight whether that was a wake-up call, whether it will make people take a closer look at this new and very powerful technology, or whether people will go on with business as usual.” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (BAS) director Kennette Benedict

The Doomsday Clock conveys how close humanity is to catastrophic destruction – the figurative midnight – and monitors the means humankind could use to obliterate itself. First and foremost, these include nuclear weapons, but they also encompass climate-changing technologies and new developments in the life sciences that could inflict irrevocable harm.