Don’t worry, this has nothing to do with religion.

In fact, it’s not even a full clock.

Rather, every year, The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moves its symbolic Doomsday Clock closer to or further from midnight, depending on the level of risk to civilisation.

This year, it was moved it a whole 30 seconds closer to midnight.

This comes as the threat to humankind is on the rise, as the twin threats of nuclear weapons and climate change increase. The group also put a significant share of the blame on the Trump administration, reports The Guardian.

No surprise there.

After the event, the clock now sits at two minutes to midnight, reflecting how the scientists view the dangers to the world:

The only other time the clock was set so close to catastrophe in its 71-year history was in 1953, after the US and the Soviet Union detonated their first thermonuclear bombs.

In the immediate aftermath of the cold war, the clock was set back to 17 minutes to midnight, but optimism about humanity’s future has steadily eroded since then.

Heartbreak. Here’s a short history of where the hand has sat and why:

Speaking to journalists in Washington, Rachel Bronson, the bulletin’s president and CEO, explained the reason for their decision:

“To call the world’s nuclear situation dire is to understate the danger and its immediacy.”

[S]cientists from the bulletin’s widely respected science and security board said that they were disturbed by the rising tensions on the Korean peninsula, the increasing emphasis and expenditure on nuclear weapons by major powers, the absence of arms control negotiations around the world, and the wavering political will to combat climate change.

In the year since the hands on the Doomsday Clock were last adjusted, North Korea has carried out its sixth nuclear test, the most powerful to date and almost certainly its first hydrogen bomb. It has also made three successful tests of intercontinental ballistic missiles, the third of which, in November, appeared to be capable of reaching New York or Washington.

The clock:

At the same time, Trump has engaged in a highly personalised exchange of insults with North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un. He has threatened “fire and fury” against the nation, and vowed to “totally destroy” if Pyongyang continued to threaten the US American strategic bombers have flown north of the 38th parallel that divides the peninsula, along the North Korean coast.

Damn Trump.

In fact, the team repeatedly blamed the Trump administration as a major factor behind the increased risks to the planet, pointing out the “president’s volatility as expressed in his tweets and statements; the inconsistency of the administration’s foreign policy; and its apparent disdain for science, reflected in its high-level appointments, which have included climate change deniers”:

“Our allies and adversaries alike are being forced [into a] thicket of conflicting policy statements, from a US administration weakened in its roster of foreign policy professionals and unable to develop, coordinate and clearly communicate a coherent foreign – much less nuclear – policy,” said Robert Rosner, the chair of the bulletin’s science and security board. “This inconsistency constitutes a major challenge for deterrence, alliance management and global stability.”

Then there’s Russia’s “provocative and illegal” behaviour (the whole Facebook saga), likening it to Cold War behaviour, and climate change, as levels of the polar ice caps sit at new lows.

‘Tis the end of the world as we know it.

[source:theguardian]