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'Doomsday' ticks closer to midnight

Antique clock shows five minutes to twelve

The decision pushes the clock back to the time where it was in 2007 (Source: Piotr Skubisz/iStockphoto)

Tick tock Global uncertainty on how to deal with the threats of nuclear weapons and climate change have forced the 'Doomsday clock' one minute closer to midnight.

"It is now five minutes to midnight," says Dr Allison Macfarlane, chair of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists , which created the Doomsday clock in 1947 as a barometer of how close the world is to an apocalyptic end.


However, today's decision pushes the clock back to the time where it was in 2007.

"It is clear that the change that appeared to be happening at the time is not happening, not materialising," says co-chair Dr Lawrence Krauss.




Increasing nuclear tensions, refusal to engage in global action on climate change, and a growing tendency to reject science when it comes to major world concerns, were cited as key reasons for the latest tick on the clock.

The nuclear accident at Japan's Fukushima plant also highlighted the volatility of relying on nuclear power in areas prone to natural disasters, scientists said.

Rejection of science

Professor Robert Socolow, a member of the BAS science and security board and professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Princeton University, says a common theme emerged in the scientists' talks this year.

He cited a "worrisome trend, notably in the United States but in many other countries, to reject or diminish the significance of what science says is the characteristic of a problem."

"The world is in a pickle. Many people want to live better than they live now on a planet of finite size," he added.


However, there is plenty of uncertainty in the nuclear realm, and even a renewed START deal between Russia and the United States has not achieved the progress scientists would like, says BAS board member Professor Jayantha Dhanapala.

"At a time when there are going to be elections in the United States, in Russia, in France, and a change of leadership in China, there is some uncertainty therefore about the nuclear weapons programs of these countries and the policies that the new leadership will follow," says Dhanapala, a former UN under-secretary general for disarmament affairs.

"The world still has approximately over 20,000 deployed nuclear weapons with enough power to destroy the world's inhabitants several times over," he adds.

"We also have the prospect of nuclear weapons being used by terrorists and non-state actors and therefore the problem of nuclear weapon use either by accident or by design.... remains a very serious problem."

Worrying reliance on fossil fuels

Executive director of the group, Dr Kennette Benedict, highlighted the dangers of a continued world reliance on fossil fuels, noting that power plants built in this decade will spew pollution for the next 50 years.

"The global community may be near a point of no return in efforts to prevent catastrophe from changes in the Earth's climate," she said.




Tags: community-and-society, disasters-and-accidents, environment, science-and-technology