thedrifter
01-17-07, 06:31 PM
Doomsday Clock ticks closer to midnight
By Karen Jowers - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Jan 17, 2007 15:16:10 EST
Global warming, a new factor being used by U.S. scientists in their “doomsday” predictions, has helped push the minute hand on the Doomsday Clock to five minutes before midnight — two minutes closer to Zero Hour than before.
This is the first time that the minute hand on the Doomsday Clock, a universally recognized indictor of the world’s vulnerability to the threat of nuclear weapons, has moved since 2002.
The board of directors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which manages the clock, said they decided to put global climate change into the mix because the dangers posed by that phenomenon in terms of the actual and potential destruction of human habitats have become “nearly as dire as those posed by nuclear weapons.”
That’s not to say the nuclear threat is now taking a back seat, however. In fact, the group said the world is on the brink of a second nuclear age. “Not since the first atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki has the world faced such perilous choices,” the board stated, noting that 27,000 nuclear weapons are known to exist, 2,000 of which are ready to launch within minutes.
“But for good luck, we would all be dead,” Stephen Hawking, the internationally renowned professor of mathematics at the University of Cambridge and a fellow of The Royal Society, said at a Jan. 17 press conference announcing the Doomsday Clock change. Hawking noted that the world has been disastrously close to Armageddon on a number of occasions.
The press conference was held jointly at the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington and the Royal Society in London.
The board cited North Korea’s recent test of a nuclear weapon, Iran’s nuclear ambitions, and unsecured nuclear materials in Russia and elsewhere as factors in the clock movement. “No sane person would argue that the proliferation of nuclear weapons across borders would make the world safer,” said Lawrence M. Krauss, professor of physics and astronomy at Case Western Reserve University.
Scientists have a special responsibility to provoke discussion among the public and politicians, Krauss said, especially if it might spur actions to reduce threats. “As the danger is magnified, science should not shirk from being the bearer of bad tidings,” he said.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists was created in 1945 by a group of scientists who took responsibility for the atomic bomb they helped create, Hawking said. Behind the scenes, these scientists have worked to discourage the use of nuclear weapons.
The board noted that serious discussion is needed about the potential expansion of nuclear power worldwide. While rising energy demands and the need to reduce carbon emissions that cause climate change are among the factors driving a turn to nuclear power, “expansion of nuclear power increases the risks of nuclear proliferation,” the board stated.
In addition to the discussion about nuclear power, the board said other immediate steps should be taken to help prevent disaster. They include:
** Reducing the launch readiness of U.S. and Russian nuclear forces and completely removing nuclear weapons from the day-to-day operations of their militaries.
** Reducing the number of nuclear weapons by dismantling, storing and destroying more than 20,000 warheads over the next 10 years and increasing efforts to locate, store and secure nuclear materials in Russia and elsewhere.
** Halting the production of nuclear weapons material.
Since the clock was created and set at 11:53 p.m. in 1947, the hands have been moved 18 times. The closest to apocalypse was 1953, when the time shifted to 11:58 p.m. after the U.S. and Soviet Union tested nuclear weapons within nine months of each other. The safest time was in 1991, when the clock was set at 11:43 p.m. after the U.S. and Soviet Union signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.
More information on the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and the Doomsday Clock is on the group’s Web site.
Ellie
By Karen Jowers - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Jan 17, 2007 15:16:10 EST
Global warming, a new factor being used by U.S. scientists in their “doomsday” predictions, has helped push the minute hand on the Doomsday Clock to five minutes before midnight — two minutes closer to Zero Hour than before.
This is the first time that the minute hand on the Doomsday Clock, a universally recognized indictor of the world’s vulnerability to the threat of nuclear weapons, has moved since 2002.
The board of directors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which manages the clock, said they decided to put global climate change into the mix because the dangers posed by that phenomenon in terms of the actual and potential destruction of human habitats have become “nearly as dire as those posed by nuclear weapons.”
That’s not to say the nuclear threat is now taking a back seat, however. In fact, the group said the world is on the brink of a second nuclear age. “Not since the first atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki has the world faced such perilous choices,” the board stated, noting that 27,000 nuclear weapons are known to exist, 2,000 of which are ready to launch within minutes.
“But for good luck, we would all be dead,” Stephen Hawking, the internationally renowned professor of mathematics at the University of Cambridge and a fellow of The Royal Society, said at a Jan. 17 press conference announcing the Doomsday Clock change. Hawking noted that the world has been disastrously close to Armageddon on a number of occasions.
The press conference was held jointly at the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington and the Royal Society in London.
The board cited North Korea’s recent test of a nuclear weapon, Iran’s nuclear ambitions, and unsecured nuclear materials in Russia and elsewhere as factors in the clock movement. “No sane person would argue that the proliferation of nuclear weapons across borders would make the world safer,” said Lawrence M. Krauss, professor of physics and astronomy at Case Western Reserve University.
Scientists have a special responsibility to provoke discussion among the public and politicians, Krauss said, especially if it might spur actions to reduce threats. “As the danger is magnified, science should not shirk from being the bearer of bad tidings,” he said.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists was created in 1945 by a group of scientists who took responsibility for the atomic bomb they helped create, Hawking said. Behind the scenes, these scientists have worked to discourage the use of nuclear weapons.
The board noted that serious discussion is needed about the potential expansion of nuclear power worldwide. While rising energy demands and the need to reduce carbon emissions that cause climate change are among the factors driving a turn to nuclear power, “expansion of nuclear power increases the risks of nuclear proliferation,” the board stated.
In addition to the discussion about nuclear power, the board said other immediate steps should be taken to help prevent disaster. They include:
** Reducing the launch readiness of U.S. and Russian nuclear forces and completely removing nuclear weapons from the day-to-day operations of their militaries.
** Reducing the number of nuclear weapons by dismantling, storing and destroying more than 20,000 warheads over the next 10 years and increasing efforts to locate, store and secure nuclear materials in Russia and elsewhere.
** Halting the production of nuclear weapons material.
Since the clock was created and set at 11:53 p.m. in 1947, the hands have been moved 18 times. The closest to apocalypse was 1953, when the time shifted to 11:58 p.m. after the U.S. and Soviet Union tested nuclear weapons within nine months of each other. The safest time was in 1991, when the clock was set at 11:43 p.m. after the U.S. and Soviet Union signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.
More information on the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and the Doomsday Clock is on the group’s Web site.
Ellie