Humanity remains close to global catastrophe as Doomsday Clock stays near midnight
THE dreaded Doomsday Clock has remained perilously close to midnight as war and natural disasters continue to pose an extreme danger to humanity.
By SEAN MARTIN
Express.co.uk
Wed, Jan 27, 2016
Every year, experts behind the clock assess how near or far humanity is to its end as they ask how much of a threat nature and man-made catastrophes could pose any given year.
For 2016, the Doomsday Clock – which is decided by The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists – has remained at three minutes to midnight, the same as last year.
The board, which is made-up of 16 Nobel Laureates, cited tension between the US and Russia along with conflicts in several other countries in 2015 as the reason why the clock has stayed so close to midnight.
A statement from the read: “Even as the Iran agreement was hammered out, tensions between the United States and Russia rose to levels reminiscent of the worst periods of the Cold War.
“Conflict in Ukraine and Syria continued, accompanied by dangerous bluster and brinkmanship, with Turkey, a NATO member, shooting down a Russian warplane involved in Syria, the director of a state-run Russian news agency making statements about turning the United States to radioactive ash, and NATO and Russia repositioning military assets and conducting significant exercises with them.
While some may believe that the clock remaining unchanged could be a positive, the Bulletin warned: “Three minutes (to midnight) is too close. Far too close.
“We, the members of the Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, want to be clear about our decision not to move the hands of the Doomsday Clock in 2016: That decision is not good news, but an expression of dismay that world leaders continue to fail to focus their efforts and the world’s attention on reducing the extreme danger posed by nuclear weapons and climate change.”
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