The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists said that the Doomsday clock is now just three minutes to apocalypse. On Thursday, the symbolic clock was moved to three minutes from midnight, aka the darkest hour for humanity. Kennette Benedict, director of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, said that they moved the clock ahead two minutes because of global warming and nuclear weaponry.
The gravest threat to humanity since 1983
It signals the second gravest threat to humanity in the 68 years of the Doomsday clock. The closest it ever got to the catastrophic midnight was two minutes to midnight in 1953 when the U.S. and former Soviet Union pursued the hydrogen bomb. And last time the clock was at three minutes was in 1983 when the U.S.-Soviet relations had hit the bottom, and arms control negotiations were stalled.
The U.S. advocacy group has sounded a warning about the climate change for the second time in the last three years. In 2012, the clock was moved from six minutes to five minutes to midnight due to growing threat from global warming. Scientists noted that 2014 was the warmest year on record. Notably, nine of the 10 hottest years since the record-keeping began have occurred after 2000. But the biggest danger lies in the failure of world leaders to act on climate change.
Doomsday clock was created in 1947
Benedict said government failures have imperiled civilizations worldwide. Leaders all around the world have failed to act with the speed or scale necessary to protect humanity from the apocalypse. Since 2000, greenhouse gas emissions have increased more than in the previous three decades combined. And climate deal negotiators have consistently lowered their ambitions to cut emissions. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists was founded by the creators of the atom bomb.
The highest ever reading on the Doomsday clock was 17 minutes to midnight in 1991, when the Soviet Union collapsed and the Cold War officially ended. Subsequently, Russia and United States began cutting their nuclear arsenals. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists came up with the Doomsday clock in 1947 to indicate the threat to humanity.
