NEW YORK, New York — Because of climate change and the threat of nuclear war, scientists moved the hands of the Doomsday Clock two minutes closer to midnight Thursday.
“It is now three minutes to midnight,” said Kennette Benedict, the executive director and publisher of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists at a press conference in Washington, D.C.
This is the closest to midnight the clock has been since 1984, during the Cold War, according to the USA Today.
The Doomsday Clock is a symbolic clock face, representing a countdown to possible political related global catastrophe (nuclear war or climate change).
It has been maintained since 1947 by the members of the Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, who are in turn advised by the Governing Board and the Board of Sponsors, including 18 Nobel Laureates.
The closer they set the Clock to midnight, the closer the scientists believe the world is to global disaster.
Originally, the Clock, which hangs on a wall in a Bulletin’s office in the University of Chicago, represented an analogy for the threat of global nuclear war; however, since 2007 it has also reflected climate change and new developments in the life sciences and technology that could inflict irrevocable harm to humanity.
The most recent officially announced setting—three minutes to midnight (11:57pm)—was made on January 22, 2015.
