Doomsday Clock: Closer to Midnight?

[JohnRM]

The Doomsday Clock...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doomsday_clock

The Doomsday Clock is a symbolic clockface maintained since 1947 by the Board of Directors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists at the University of Chicago. It uses the analogy of the human race being at a time that is a 'few minutes to midnight' where midnight represents destruction by nuclear war. The clock has appeared on the cover of each issue of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists since its introduction.

http://www.thebulletin.org/doomsday_clock/timeline.htm

How North Korea’s nuclear test
affects the Doomsday Clock

North Korea's recent underground nuclear test is part of a worrisome trend of increased nuclear proliferation. Before making a decision about moving the hands of the Clock, however, the Board of Directors is also watching to see how the international community responds to North Korea's actions.

As outlined in its 2002 Clock statement the Board worries most about the large quantities of unsecured nuclear weapons material in Russia and elsewhere, along with Al Qaeda's stated intentions to acquire the necessary materials to produce a nuclear device.

Likewise, Pakistan's nuclear weapons program, about which the International Atomic Energy Agency and other experts know very little, causes great concern; the A. Q. Kahn network originated in Pakistan, and, despite Khan's arrest, the illicit trade in nuclear technologies and materials continues. North Korea already plays a role in this trade.

The Board also closely monitors disarmament efforts around the world, and there is not much progress to report. Almost two decades after the Cold War, Russia and the United States together possess a total of 26,000 nuclear weapons. Each side maintains nearly 1,000 weapons on high levels of launch readiness, ready to strike targets thousands of miles away in as little as 30 minutes.

While we continue to follow closely the actions surrounding North Korea's first nuclear test, we are mindful as well of the larger context of nuclear proliferation and disarmament. All these considerations continue to inform the Board's decisions about the state of global security.

The closest to midnight that the Doomsday Clock has ever gotten was two minutes to midnight, back in 1953, but it has since then been as close as three minutes to midnight as recently as 1984. The current time is seven minutes to midnight. If any change is to occur, it is likely to be negative and if trends hold up, it will be a change of at least two minutes, bringing us down to five minutes. If nothing is done about the Iranian nuclear situation, it could bring the clock closer to midnight than at anytime since 1953.

Any thoughts?

 

[amadeus]

Break out the Vera Lynn records, because somebody is going down in the next five years.

 

[Bill3000]

The closest to midnight that the Doomsday Clock has ever gotten was two minutes to midnight, back in 1953, but it has since then been as close as three minutes to midnight as recently as 1984. The current time is seven minutes to midnight. If any change is to occur, it is likely to be negative and if trends hold up, it will be a change of at least two minutes, bringing us down to five minutes. If nothing is done about the Iranian nuclear situation, it could bring the clock closer to midnight than at anytime since 1953.

Is Russia suddenly going to intervene on the side of Iran or something? If not, I doubt that an apocalyptic nuclear scenario will occur.

 

[AL_DA_GREAT]

pure speculation about the hands. 7 minutes to midnight seems a little bit short. Good way to get attention though, and a very neat idea.

 

[Sidhe]

God this is nonsense, and fear mongering nosnense of the finest bull plop; RMSharpe are you really that sure that America will invade another country after the last load of fiascos. Have you learnt nothing from your pointless wars? In a hundred years people will still be debating why making so many mistakes couldn't teach a horse that was at water to drink.

 

[JohnRM]

Break out the Vera Lynn records, because somebody is going down in the next five years.

Hopefully, that will be Iran.

BTW, I love that song.

 

[BasketCase]

Any clock that remains stuck just before midnight....

....for more than half a century....

.....IS BROKEN.


Face it, folks--we've got no idea when (or IF) the Big Kaboom is gonna happen.

 

[JohnRM]

Geez, I guess I should have asked, first, if any of you thought that the Clock had any merit to it.

 

[amadeus]

RMSharpe are you really that sure that America will invade another country after the last load of fiascos.

I believe that a nuclear device will be used for offensive purposes within the next five years; who uses it and who receives it is unclear.

 

[Sidhe]

Geez, I guess I should have asked, first, if any of you thought that the Clock had any merit to it.

Probably a rhetorical question. What annoys me is that people would actually take this seriously. Not that it is obviously patently BS.

 

[Bill3000]

I believe that a nuclear device will be used for offensive purposes within the next five years; who uses it and who receives it is unclear.

That has nothing to do with the destruction of the earth by a nuclear war.

 

[Irish Caesar]

Well, the clock is rather silly anyway, and we're nowhere near as close to nuclear armageddon now as we may have been at the height of the Cold War.

But just because another crazy dictator has the Bomb (not one that works very well, but...), tack on another thirty seconds, what the hey.

 

[Irish Caesar]

Geez, I guess I should have asked, first, if any of you thought that the Clock had any merit to it.

No more or less merit than any other editorial cartoon.

 

[GenMarshall]

They still have this thing?

I thought they did away with it after the fall of the USSR.

 

[plarq]

This clock will be considered as a tool of sensationalists on both sides. One side will criticize west and cry "peace, love and flowers"; the other side will urge the imperialistic feature of the west and cry "death, conquest and glory".

 

[Sidhe]

This clock will be considered as a tool of sensationalists on both sides. One side will criticize west and cry "peace, love and flowers"; the other side will urge the imperialistic feature of the west and cry "death, conquest and glory".

More rational people will just fart turn over and go to sleep.

 

[GenMarshall]

This clock will be considered as a tool of sensationalists on both sides. One side will criticize west and cry "peace, love and flowers"; the other side will urge the imperialistic feature of the west and cry "death, conquest and glory".

I consider it a useless too to tell time with .