CLOSER TO DOOM WITH NUKE THREATS

Scientists gloomy over North Korean bombs, Trump’s unpredictability

MOUNTING concerns about the possibility of a nuclear war, along with United States President Donald Trump’s “unpredictability”, have pushed the symbolic “Doomsday Clock” to two minutes before midnight, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists said on Thursday.

The clock, which serves as a metaphor for how close humanity is to destroying the planet, was moved forward by 30 seconds, to as near as it has ever been to the hour of the apocalypse.

“In 2017, world leaders failed to respond effectively to the looming threats of nuclear war and climate change, making the world security situation more dangerous than it was a year ago — and as dangerous as it has been since World War 2,” said the group of intellectuals across the fields of international affairs, science, environment and security.

The last time the clock was at two minutes to midnight was in 1953, when the US and Soviet Union were testing hydrogen bombs.

“In this year’s discussions, nuclear issues took centre stage again,” said Rachel Bronson, president and chief executive officer of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists.

She described last year as “perilous and chaotic”, a year in which “we saw reckless language in the nuclear realm heat up already dangerous situations”.

The Doomsday Clock was created in 1947. Its time has changed 20 times since then, ranging from two minutes to midnight in 1953 to 17 minutes before midnight in 1991.

Last year, it moved from three minutes before midnight to 2½ minutes.