Doomsday Clock ticks closer to midnight, highest danger level since 1953

Scientists have moved the time of the Doomsday Clock counting down humanity’s dying days closer to midnight, with the dials now set at two and a half minutes to 12am – the highest danger level facing the planet since 1953.

A global failure to fight climate change and concern over Donald Trump’s cabinet picks were cited as reasons for the increased threat to the planet. The clock had been set at three minutes to midnight since 2015.

The threat posed to democracy by fake news and the influence exerted on elections were also cited as reasons for the new time, according to a panel of scientists involved in the process.

The appropriate symbolic time is deduced each year by The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientist. The new reading brings the threat closer to midnight than it’s been since the height of the Cold War – when it reached 11:58pm.

Speaking at the announcement, theoretical physicist Lawrence Maxwell Krauss said, “US and Russian leaders need to come together to reduce nuclear arms” adding that “President Trump and President Vladimir Putin can act together as statesmen or act as petulant children dictating our future.”
 [rt.com]
26/1/17
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