The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moves its symbolic “Doomsday Clock” 30 seconds closer to midnight, warning that comments by Trump and a “darkening global security landscape” have made the world less safe.
The clock — which serves as a metaphor for how close humanity is to destroying the planet — was last changed in 2015, from five to three minutes to midnight. It is now set at two and a half minutes to midnight.
The decision to move the clock is led by a group of scientists and intellectuals, including 15 Nobel laureates.
The minute hand on the clock was moved amid concerns about “a rise in strident nationalism worldwide, President Donald Trump’s comments on nuclear arms and climate issues, a darkening global security landscape that is colored by increasingly sophisticated technology, and a growing disregard for scientific expertise,” the group says in a statement.
“Never before has the Bulletin decided to advance the clock largely because of the statements of a single person,” two scientists at the Bulletin, Lawrence Krauss and David Titley, say in an opinion piece in The New York Times. “But when that person is the new president of the United States, his words matter.”
This file photo taken on February 26, 2002 shows the Bulletin of Atomic Scientist’s ‘Doomsday Clock’ in Chicago reading seven minutes to midnight. (AFP PHOTO/SCOTT OLSON)
— AFP
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