World still three minutes from ‘apocalypse’ according Doomsday Clock

The Bulletin’s Science and Security Board meets twice annually to discuss global events, but don’t adjust the clock in real-time.

To help the clock move back, the scientists urged world leaders to dramatically reduce proposed spending on nuclear-weapons-modernization programs and reenergize the disarmament process, engage with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to reduce nuclear risks, deal with the problem of commercial nuclear waste, follow up on the Paris accord to sharply reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, as well as create institutions specifically designed to explore and address potentially catastrophic misuse of new technologies.

“The decision not to move the minute hand of the Doomsday Clock is not good news”, said Lawrence Krauss, chair of the Bulletin’s Board of Sponsors.

Krauss is a professor Arizona State University and a senior member of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, the US-based journal and advocacy group founded by the creators of the atomic bomb.

“Three minutes (to midnight) is too close”.

The AP notes that the clock was closest to midnight in 1953-two minutes away from striking 12-after the ongoing cold war between the United States and Soviet Union resulted in both nations testing hydrogen bombs. Well, closer to home is the Doomsday Clock, which happens to be a symbolic countdown to the world’s end, and thankfully right now, it remains at three minutes until midnight as announced earlier today.

“The Iran nuclear agreement and the Paris climate accord are major diplomatic achievements, but they constitute only small bright spots in a darker world situation full of potential for catastrophe”, the statement noted. Two years later, following the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the BAS designed the Doomsday Clock to alert the public to the dangers of nuclear proliferation. The clock counts down to midnight, which represents the point of global catastrophe.

The clock serves as a metaphor for how close humanity is to destroying the planet, and was most recently moved closer to midnight in 2015.

Conversely, the scientists were most optimistic in 1991, deciding at 17 minutes to global destruction at the end of the Cold War. “Far too close”, the organization said in a statement.

The United State’s decision to spend $350 billion over the next decades to maintain and modernize its nuclear forces and infrastructure.