{"id":13770,"date":"2012-04-18T09:49:27","date_gmt":"2012-04-18T16:49:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.survival-spot.com\/survival-blog\/?p=13770"},"modified":"2014-09-30T20:09:50","modified_gmt":"2014-10-01T03:09:50","slug":"doomsday-clock-moved-forward-what-has-scientists-worried","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.survival-spot.com\/survival-blog\/doomsday-clock-moved-forward-what-has-scientists-worried\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Doomsday Clock’ moved forward. What has scientists worried?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"doomsday<\/a>\u00a0Scientists say they moved the ‘Doomsday Clock’ a minute closer to midnight because nations are failing to sufficiently address nuclear proliferation, climate change, and other global threats.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Citing \u201cinaction\u201d on renewed nuclear proliferation, climate change, and the urgent need to find sustainable sources of energy, a group of scientists has moved the \u201cDoomsday Clock\u201d a minute closer to midnight, saying nations are \u201cfailing to change business as usual.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a back-to-the-future moment for the \u201cDoomsday Clock,\u201d which just two years ago had been shifted backward to indicate global catastrophe was a bit less imminent.<\/p>\n

Directors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientist, a group originally composed of\u00a0University of Chicago\u00a0scientists involved in the\u00a0Manhattan Project<\/a>, created the clock in 1947 to use the imagery of apocalypse (midnight) to convey the peril of nuclear weapons proliferation. Through the cold war it tolled, reminding nations of the silent danger.<\/p>\n

Over the years, the hands of the clock have moved around a lot. In 1949, the clock was moved to three minutes to midnight when\u00a0President Harry Truman\u00a0told the American public that the Soviets had tested their first nuclear device \u2013 starting the arms race. By 1991, with the cold war officially over and the\u00a0US\u00a0and\u00a0Russia\u00a0slashing their nuclear arsenals, the clock retreated to 17 minutes to midnight.<\/p>\n

Terrorism, tensions between nuclear-armed rivals\u00a0India\u00a0and\u00a0Pakistan, renewed friction between the US and Russia,\u00a0North Korea’s nuclear push, and other tensions had pushed the clock to five minutes to midnight by 2007.<\/p>\n

But movement on nuclear arms talks, climate change, and other threats so buoyed the scientists two years ago that they ordered the so-called Doomsday Clock’s minute hand to be pushed backward to six minutes before midnight.<\/p>\n

Now, despite the Arab Spring and other pro-democracy movements around the world, including in Russia, lowering clouds have rolled back in for these scientists. So much so that on Tuesday the BAS directors announced they were moving the minute hand of the clock back to the 2007 position \u2013 11:55.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo years ago, it appeared that world leaders might address the truly global threats that we face,\u201d the BAS directors said in a statement. \u201cIn many cases, that trend has not continued or been reversed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cInaction on key issues including climate change, and rising international tensions motivate the movement of the clock,\u201d the group said in its statement. \u201cAs we see it, the major challenge at the heart of humanity\u2019s survival in the 21st century is how to meet energy needs for economic growth in developing and industrial countries without further damaging the climate, exposing people to loss of health and community, and without risking further spread of nuclear weapons.\u201d<\/p>\n

But in a year in which the\u00a0Mayan calendar\u00a0<\/a>and other doomsday prophesies are getting more than their share of attention, how seriously, really should the public take this obviously subjective \u2013 and critics might argue meaningless \u2013 relic of the cold war?<\/p>\n

\u201cIs this ridiculous thing still around?\u201d Darrin Cothran, a commenter on a\u00a0Los Angeles Times<\/a>\u00a0web page noting the clock’s shift moaned. \u201cTime to tell these elderly gentlemen that it’s time to retire.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey’re just trying to stay relevant,\u201d piped up an anonymous commentator on\u00a0Slashdot<\/a>. \u201cWe all forgot about them when the Cold War ended, and they crave attention again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Others, however, argue in favor of at least some type of global warning clock \u2013 as a simple indicator for society that unseen looming problems exist and need public attention.<\/p>\n

Daniel Abbasi, a former senior adviser at the\u00a0Environmental Protection Agency<\/a>, has argued that the world needs a Global Climate Change Index akin to the\u00a0Dow Jones Industrial Average\u00a0to chart humanity’s gains \u2013 and reversals. It needs to be simple enough to keep public eyes from glazing over and still hold policymakers\u2019 feet to the fire on really lowering greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere.<\/p>\n

Bulletin scientists argue that the need for their clock remains strong. Key recommendations for a safer world that they say have not been taken up include:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Ratification by the US and\u00a0China\u00a0of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty<\/p>\n

\u2022 Implementing multinational management of the civilian nuclear energy fuel cycle with strict standards for safety, security, and nonproliferation of nuclear weapons<\/p>\n

\u2022 Strengthening the\u00a0International Atomic Energy Agency<\/a>‘s capacity to oversee nuclear materials and technology development<\/p>\n

\u2022 Adopting climate change agreements to reduce carbon dioxide emissions<\/p>\n

\u2022 Transforming the coal power sector of the world economy to retire older plants and require new plants to capture and store carbon dioxide they produce<\/p>\n

\u2022 Increasing public and private investments in alternatives to carbon-emitting energy sources, such as solar and wind, and technologies for energy storage<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether meeting the challenges of nuclear power, or mitigating the suffering from human-caused global warming, or preventing catastrophic nuclear conflict in a volatile world, the power of people is essential,\u201d Kennette Benedict, executive director of the\u00a0Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists<\/a>, said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor this reason, we ask other scientists and experts to join us in engaging ordinary citizens,\u201d she said. \u201cTogether, we can present the most significant questions to policymakers and industry leaders.\u00a0 Most importantly, we can demand answers and action.\u201d<\/p>\n

[Via CSMonitor.com<\/a>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0Scientists say they moved the ‘Doomsday Clock’ a minute closer to midnight because nations are failing to sufficiently address nuclear proliferation, climate change, and other global threats. Citing \u201cinaction\u201d on renewed nuclear proliferation, climate change, and the urgent need to find sustainable sources of energy, a group of scientists has moved the \u201cDoomsday Clock\u201d a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13775,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[195,394],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-survivalism"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.survival-spot.com\/survival-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.survival-spot.com\/survival-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.survival-spot.com\/survival-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.survival-spot.com\/survival-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.survival-spot.com\/survival-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.survival-spot.com\/survival-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13770\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.survival-spot.com\/survival-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.survival-spot.com\/survival-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.survival-spot.com\/survival-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.survival-spot.com\/survival-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}