It was decided today, January 22, 2015, that the Doomsday Clock would be set forward to 11:57 P.M., just 3 minutes shy of the representative midnight that indicates how close the world is to a “potentially civilization-ending catastrophe”.
The clock’s hands (its time) hadn’t moved in three years, but those behind The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists decided the state of the world warranted a change now. They have maintained the time since 1947.
When the clock was conceived, it was set at 11:53 P.M. and across the years has been as close as 2 minutes in 1953 and as far away as 17 minutes in 1991.
Live Science reports:
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists doesn’t use the clock to make any real doomsday predictions. Rather, the clock is a visual metaphor to warn the public about how close the world is to a potentially civilization-ending catastrophe. Each year, the magazine’s board analyzes threats to humanity’s survival to decide where the Doomsday Clock’s hands should be set.
Experts on the board said they felt a sense of urgency this year because of the world’s ongoing addiction to fossil fuels, procrastination with enacting laws to cut greenhouse gas emissions and slow efforts to get rid of nuclear weapons.
So although the Doomsday Clock began as a result of the nuclear weapons age, it has broadened in scope, acknowledging that humankind’s existence is determined by other threats as well.
Feel free is read the complete article, “Doomsday Clock Set at 3 Minutes to Midnight” at Live Science!
News to Share brief source: “Doomsday Clock Set at 3 Minutes to Midnight” by Megan Gannon for Live Science
Image (license CC0 Public Domain) by PublicDomainPictures via Flickr
