"World leaders have failed to act with the speed or on the scale required to protect citizens from potential catastrophe. "In 2015, unchecked climate change, global nuclear weapons modernizations, and outsized nuclear weapons arsenals pose extraordinary and undeniable threats to the continued existence of humanity," read a statement from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. We're now in an equally dangerous place, according to the scientists, for the first time in more than 20 years. In 1953, following American and Soviet tests of the hydrogen bomb, the clock reached 11:58, or two minutes to midnight (the closest to doomsday it’s ever been).
#Doomsday 3 minutes to midnight series
The comic series Watchmen used a representation of the clock prominently to portray a world on the brink of disaster and the drastic steps its heroes used to save it. It has only been closer to midnight once, in 1953, when both the United States and Soviet Union were testing thermonuclear weapons. It has been at three minutes in 1984 during the Cold War, and in 1949 when the Soviet Union tested its own atomic bomb. This makes the current position tied for the second-closest it's ever been, says io9.
The closer to midnight, the closer we're said to be to a global catastrophe. It has been at five minutes to midnight since 2012, when it was moved up from six due to concerns about nuclear safety. Maintained since 1947, the clock is a metaphor for threats to humanity from unchecked scientific and technological advances. Scary stuff, folks.Io9 reports that The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which administers the clock, cited global warming and nuclear proliferation as its reasoning behind the move. The Doomsday Clock is a symbol that represents the likelihood of a man-made global catastrophe, in the opinion of the members of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. In 1947, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists published, on its cover, a Doomsday Clock. Last week, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists announced that there had been no discernable change during the 12 months and the world’s Doomsday Clock would remain at three minutes to midnight. The Doomsday Clock in 2002, when it was set at 11:53. Last year, because of unchecked climate change and a growing nuclear arms race, the clock was set at 3 minutes to midnight. However, the signing of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty relaxed tensions in 1988 and the minute hand was rolled back once again. Worried scientist declared the world was a mere 180 seconds away from the proverbial end of days. The Sciences Doomsday Clock Set at 3 Minutes to Midnight Humanity's failure to reduce global nuclear arsenals as well as climate change prompted the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists to advance. The closest the Doomsday clock came to midnight was in 1984 because of stalled communication between the US and the Soviet Union. The doomsday clock was turned back to the furthest point ever in 1991 when it was set at 11:43 after the USA and the Soviet Union signed the first Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. Over the years, reflecting the state of the world, the clock has moved closer or further away from midnight. The method they devised was the Doomsday Clock and, when they began in 1947, they set the clock at seven minutes to midnight to symbolise our proximity to an apocalypse. Ever since the end of World War II, a group of distinguished scientists regularly discusses how close the world is to catastrophe, mainly through nuclear war.
The Doomsday Clock: just three minutes from midnight.
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