AsianScientist (Jan. 12, 2012) – Faced with inadequate progress on nuclear weapons reduction and proliferation, and continuing inaction on climate change, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (BAS) announced on Tuesday that it has moved the hands of its famous “Doomsday Clock” to five minutes to midnight.
The January 10, 2012 Doomsday Clock followed an international symposium held January 9, 2012 in Washington, D.C. Questions addressed at the symposium included the future of nuclear power after Fukushima; the management of nuclear weapons; the links among climate change, resource scarcity, conflict, and nuclear weapons; and steps that can be taken towards the robust implementation of the Biological Weapons Convention.
The decision to move the minute hand of the Doomsday Clock is made by the Bulletin’s Board of Directors in consultation with its Board of Sponsors, which includes 18 Nobel Laureates, after reviewing the implications of recent events and trends for the future of humanity on issues such as nuclear weapons, nuclear energy, climate change, and biosecurity.
The last time the Doomsday Clock minute hand moved was in January 2010, when the Clock’s minute hand was pushed back one minute from five to six minutes before midnight.
“It is five minutes to midnight. Two years ago, it appeared that world leaders might address the truly global threats that we face. In many cases, that trend has not continued or been reversed. For that reason, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is moving the clock hand one minute closer to midnight, back to its time in 2007,” said a formal statement issued by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
Founded in 1945 by University of Chicago scientists who had helped develop the first atomic weapons in the Manhattan Project, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists subsequently created the Doomsday Clock in 1947 using the imagery of apocalypse (midnight) and the contemporary idiom of nuclear explosion (countdown to zero), to convey threats to humanity and the planet.
The Clock has become a universally recognized indicator of the world’s vulnerability to catastrophe from nuclear weapons, climate change, and emerging technologies in the life sciences.
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Source: The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists.
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