14 DAY TRIAL // The board of directors at the University of Chicago's Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (BAS) has been maintaining the Doomsday Clock, a symbolic clock face meant to express how well humanity is doing, since 1947. Yesterday, it was moved to show just five minutes until midnight.
The previous mark was set in January 2010, so the move represents a pessimistic view about our future. The BAS representatives say that global warming, the prevalence of nuclear and biological weapons, and a number of other man-made disasters (such as massive oil spills) explain the move.
Things as different as the Fukushima nuclear disaster and the creation of the airborne H5N1 flu strain were also considered in deciding whether to change the clock. The device is set up in such a way that, when it reaches zero, it will symbolize the destruction of humanity, Space reports.
Since 1991, when the Berlin Wall fell and the clock was reset to 17 minutes till midnight, the global situation has been going from bad to worse. The 2010 reset from 5 to 6 minutes represented the BAS' optimism in climate talks and the fight against terrorism, but those hopes unfortunately proved to be unfounded.