Doomsday Clock moved back just a little
The Doomsday Clock has shifted to six minutes before midnight
The Doomsday Clock, which is a indicator of the risks of a nuclear catastrophy of global scale, has been set back one minute further from the “witching hour”.
Introduced 55 years ago by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, the symbolic timepiece currently stands at six minutes before midnight.
Representatives at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists said the decision to set the clock back by one minute was made because the world appears to enjoy a more hopeful state of affairs.
The Doomsday Clock was first mentioned in a 1947 edition of the Bulletin, only a short time after the United States had dropped the world’s first atomic weapon on Japan. When it was introduce, the clock was set at seven minutes before midnight. Since then, it’s been adjusted a total of 18 times.
Most recently adjustment made before this one was in January 2007 when the clock was set to five minutes to midnight.
At that time, experts had factored in climate change to the prospect of annihilation by a nuclear conflict as humankind’s greatest threats.
The concerns over Iran’s nuclear ambitions as well as the inability of the governments to stop global commerce of nuclear materials including highly enriched plutonium and uranium had also spurred the heighten risks.
Currently, according to members of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, there is a “growing political will” to confront the “terror of nuclear weapons” as well as the “runaway climate change”.
But BAS co-chair Lawrence Krauss cautioned the scientific community that much is still to be accomplished.
During a press conference in New York city, BAS members claimed that by setting back the time on the Doomsday Clock by only one minute they wanted to emphasize how much needs to be done, although still paying homage to the collaborative spirit taking root between nuclear nations such as the United States, Russia, India, China, Brazil and the European Union.