pgogborn
01-17-2007, 11:57 AM
...and it is not just about the risk posed by Iran, North Korea et al other proliferators, it is also about the dangers of climate change.
Times Online
January 17, 2007
Mark Bridge
The keepers of the so-called Doomsday Clock, which counts down to Armageddon, today moved its hands closer to midnight for the first time in four years to reflect the growing threats to mankind from nuclear proliferation and climate change.
In a ceremony hosted by the British theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, the minute hand was moved forwards by two minutes to stand at five minutes to midnight - the closest it has come to midnight since the Cold War arms race of the 1980s [pgogborn interjection, all news is local, in other countries there were other ceremonies hosted by other people]
"North Korea’s recent test of a nuclear weapon, Iran’s nuclear ambitions, a renewed emphasis on the military utility of nuclear weapons, the failure to adequately secure nuclear materials, and the continued presence of some 26,000 nuclear weapons in the United States and Russia are symptomatic of a failure to solve the problems posed by the most destructive technology on Earth."
The [Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists] statement continues: "The dangers posed by climate change are nearly as dire as those posed by nuclear weapons. The effects may be less dramatic in the short term than the destruction that could be wrought by nuclear explosions, but over the next three to four decades climate change could cause irremediable harm to the habitats upon which human societies depend for survival."
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/42461000/gif/_42461999_doomsday_4161.gif
full report (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2552348,00.html)
Although perhaps the BAS clock is not a particularly reliable time keeper, I reckon it got it wrong when it went backwards during the time that Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachyov was leader of the Soviet Union, I reckon it should have been going forward then, more so then than now.
Times Online
January 17, 2007
Mark Bridge
The keepers of the so-called Doomsday Clock, which counts down to Armageddon, today moved its hands closer to midnight for the first time in four years to reflect the growing threats to mankind from nuclear proliferation and climate change.
In a ceremony hosted by the British theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, the minute hand was moved forwards by two minutes to stand at five minutes to midnight - the closest it has come to midnight since the Cold War arms race of the 1980s [pgogborn interjection, all news is local, in other countries there were other ceremonies hosted by other people]
"North Korea’s recent test of a nuclear weapon, Iran’s nuclear ambitions, a renewed emphasis on the military utility of nuclear weapons, the failure to adequately secure nuclear materials, and the continued presence of some 26,000 nuclear weapons in the United States and Russia are symptomatic of a failure to solve the problems posed by the most destructive technology on Earth."
The [Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists] statement continues: "The dangers posed by climate change are nearly as dire as those posed by nuclear weapons. The effects may be less dramatic in the short term than the destruction that could be wrought by nuclear explosions, but over the next three to four decades climate change could cause irremediable harm to the habitats upon which human societies depend for survival."
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/42461000/gif/_42461999_doomsday_4161.gif
full report (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2552348,00.html)
Although perhaps the BAS clock is not a particularly reliable time keeper, I reckon it got it wrong when it went backwards during the time that Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachyov was leader of the Soviet Union, I reckon it should have been going forward then, more so then than now.