"Doomsday Clock" minute hand to move

[Miulang]

The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists has had a "Doomsday Clock" to depict the coming of the next nuclear age. Depending on whether the threat of nuclear attack waxes or wanes, the minute hand of that clock either advances or retreats. Since 2002, the hand has been stuck at 7 minutes to midnight (midnight being Doomsday). They have announced that on Wednesday they will be moving the minute hand again.

"The major new step reflects growing concerns about a 'Second Nuclear Age' marked by grave threats, including: nuclear ambitions in Iran and North Korea, unsecured nuclear materials in Russia and elsewhere, the continuing 'launch-ready' status of 2,000 of the 25,000 nuclear weapons held by the U.S. and Russia, escalating terrorism, and new pressure from climate change for expanded civilian nuclear power that could increase proliferation risks," the release reads.

The clock was last pushed forward by two minutes to seven minutes to midnight in 2002 amid concerns about the proliferation of nuclear, biological and other weapons and the threat of terrorism.

When it was created by the magazine's staff in 1947, it was initially set at seven minutes to midnight and has moved 17 times since then.

It was as close as two minutes to midnight in 1953 following U.S. and Soviet hydrogen bomb tests, and as far away as 17 minutes to midnight in 1991 after the superpowers reached agreement on a nuclear arms reductions.

Miulang

[Mike_Lowery]

Re: "Doomsday Clock" minute hand to move

I always thought of this and DHS's security threat level to be methods of keeping the citizenry in line--kinda like a pimp sittin in his Cutlass Supreme at the corner. Nuclear profliferation schmoliferation.

[Miulang]

"5 minutes to Doomsday"

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists announced yesterday that they had moved the minute hand on the Doomsday Clock 2 minutes closer to xero hour. Besides the threat of nuclear proliferation, a new factor has been added: global warming.

The board of directors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which manages the clock, said they decided to put global climate change into the mix because the dangers posed by that phenomenon in terms of the actual and potential destruction of human habitats have become “nearly as dire as those posed by nuclear weapons.”

That’s not to say the nuclear threat is now taking a back seat, however. In fact, the group said the world is on the brink of a second nuclear age. “Not since the first atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki has the world faced such perilous choices,” the board stated, noting that 27,000 nuclear weapons are known to exist, 2,000 of which are ready to launch within minutes.

“But for good luck, we would all be dead,” Stephen Hawking, the internationally renowned professor of mathematics at the University of Cambridge and a fellow of The Royal Society, said at a Jan. 17 press conference announcing the Doomsday Clock change. Hawking noted that the world has been disastrously close to Armageddon on a number of occasions.

...In addition to the discussion about nuclear power, the board said other immediate steps should be taken to help prevent disaster. They include:

** Reducing the launch readiness of U.S. and Russian nuclear forces and completely removing nuclear weapons from the day-to-day operations of their militaries.

** Reducing the number of nuclear weapons by dismantling, storing and destroying more than 20,000 warheads over the next 10 years and increasing efforts to locate, store and secure nuclear materials in Russia and elsewhere.

** Halting the production of nuclear weapons material.

Miulang

[PoiBoy]

Re: "Doomsday Clock" minute hand to move

And they call Einstein a genius.