Doomsday Clock Set Back

As we were telling you a few days ago, the official ceremony of adjusting the Doomsday Clock took place Thursday, in New York City. Representatives from the Bulletin of Atomic Sciences (BAS), the group that first created the clock in 1947, set back the minute hand on the clock by one minute, and the device now shows 11:54 pm, just six minutes remaining until midnight. The ceremony took place on January 14, at the New York Academy of Sciences Building, but the actual clock is located at the BAS office, in Chicago, Illinois. Organizers of the NYC event used a replica of the famous instrument to represent the modifications made, LiveScience reports.

“We moved it back by just one minute, and what that means is there's great potential for it to move in either direction,” BAS Board of Sponsors theoretical physicist Lawrence Krauss explained at the conference. He revealed that some of the most difficult challenges facing us, as a race and a civilization, included global warming, climate change and the threat of nuclear weapons. However, in all of these directions, the BAS identified “a sea change in attitude, an opening up of possibilities, but not yet a lot of action,” the spokesperson for the Bulletin told the media. Krauss holds an appointment as an Arizona State University (ASU) Physics Department professor, and is also the director of the Origins Initiative.

“For the first time since atomic bombs were dropped in 1945, leaders of nuclear weapons states are cooperating to vastly reduce their arsenals and secure all nuclear bomb-making material. And for the first time ever, industrialized and developing countries alike are pledging to limit climate-changing gas emissions that could render our planet nearly uninhabitable,” BAS scientists said of some of the reasons that influenced their decision. The last time the minute hand of the Doomsday Clock was moved was in 2007, when it was set ahead by two minutes, from 11:53 to 11:55 pm. The Bulletin is currently aware that the situation could go both ways, and that is why they decided on such a small change.

The scientists also propose a few methods for reducing the perils associated with nuclear energy and climate change. A working treaty between Russia and the United States could do wonders, they say, as would an agreement to destroy some of the 27,000 nuclear weapons that are currently stocked around the world. Some 2,000 of these weapons of mass destruction can be launched within a matter of minutes, the BAS team warns. More investments in alternatives to fossil fuel-based energy are also encouraged, as eliminating oil and coal could directly and significantly influence the health of the environment.