Doomsday clock remains at 3 minutes to midnight
File photo courtesy: Flickr/Erik Fitzpatrick
Digital Reporter
Wednesday, January 27, 2016, 6:21 PM - For the second year in a row , the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has kept humanity's doomsday clock at three minutes to midnight, largely due to climate change.
“That decision is not good news but an expression of dismay that world leaders continue to fail to focus their efforts and the world’s attention on reducing the extreme danger posed by nuclear weapons and climate change,” the group said in a statement.
Prior to 2015, the clock has been sitting at 5 minutes to midnight.
WHAT IS THE DOOMSDAY CLOCK?
The doomsday clock was created nearly 70 years ago. It serves as a metaphor, representing how close humanity is to a civilization-ending catastrophe.
Each year, the twenty board members of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists convene to assess the biggest threats to humanity.
Last year, the ongoing threat of climate change and nuclear weapons were among the largest threats, a trend that continued into 2016.
The closest the Doomsday Clock has ever been to midnight was in 1953, when the first tests on the hydrogen bomb were conducted.
That was enough to push the time forward to 11:58 p.m.
The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists says we may be able to avoid disaster if humanity:
- Reduces spending on nuclear weapons;
- Sharply reduce greenhouse gases;
- Deal with commercial nuclear waste; and
- Establish protocols to prevent the misuse of new technologies.
Source: Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
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