Two minutes closer to catastrophe as Doomsday Clock counts down

LONDON: The end of the world is nigh – or has, at least, come closer in the past three years – according to the scientists behind the Doomsday Clock, a symbolic measure which counts down to Armageddon.

The minute- hand of the 68-year-old concept-clock was moved forward by two minutes yesterday, showing a time of 11.57pm – just three minutes from destruction – to reflect the fact that the “probability of global catastrophe is very high”.

The time change symbolised the scientists’ damning assessment of the way the world is being governed.

“Today, unchecked climate change and a nuclear arms race pose extraordinary and undeniable threats to the continued existence of humanity,” said Kennette Benedict, executive director of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists in Chicago, the group of scientists who set the clock.

“World leaders have failed to act with the speed or on the scale required to protect citizens from potential catastrophe,” she said.

The clock is set by a team which includes 17 Nobel Prize winners and is taken extremely seriously.

The committee pointed out that greenhouse gas emissions have soared by 50 percent since 1990, and more than £660 billion (about R11 324 trillion) is still being invested in fossil fuel infrastructure every year.

“The resulting climate change will harm millions of people and will threaten many key ecological systems on which civilisation relies. This threat looms over all of humanity,” said committee member Richard Somerville.

The report also raised considerable concerns about nuclear weapons. “Since the end of the Cold War, there has been a cautious optimism about the ability of nuclear weapon states to keep the nuclear arms race in check,” said Sharon Squassoni, a member of the clock committee.

“The other nuclear-armed states are not willing to reduce their weapons until the US and Russia reduce their warheads to under 1 000,” she warned.

The clock was established in 1947 – with an initial time of 11.53pm – after atomic bombs hit Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The latest change is the 19th time the minute hand has been moved. The most recent change was in 2012, when it was pushed forward by a minute, again on concerns about climate change and nuclear weapons. The last time the clock read 11.57pm was in 1983 when “US- Soviet relations were at their iciest”, according to the Bulletin. The lowest reading was of 11.58pm in 1953, when the Americans decided to pursue development of the hydrogen bomb. – The Independent

PICTURE: AP TICKING: Kennette Benedict, executive director for the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, beside the Doomsday Clock this week in Washington.