Dooms Day Clock Moved Ahead

[Christina]

The world has nudged closer to apocalypse as a result of climate change and nuclear proliferation, Prof Stephen Hawking and other prominent scientists warned today as the hand of a symbolic Doomsday Clock moved two minutes closer to midnight. Professor Hawking spoke as scientists moved the hands of the Doomsday Clock forward The clock, devised at the dawn of the nuclear age, made official what many now feel in their bones - that the world has edged closer to disaster.“We foresee great peril if governments and societies do not take action now,” said Prof Hawking. It was the fourth time since the end of the Cold War that the clock has ticked forward, this time from 11:53 to 11:55, amid fears over what the scientists are describing as “a second nuclear age”, prompted largely by failure to curb the atomic ambitions of Iran and North Korea. “As scientists, we understand the dangers of nuclear weapons and their devastating effects, and we are learning how human activities and technologies are affecting climate systems in ways that may forever change life on Earth,” said Prof Hawking, of Cambridge University.“As citizens of the world, we have a duty to alert the public to the unnecessary risks that we live with every day, and to the perils we foresee if governments and societies do not take action now to render nuclear weapons obsolete and to prevent further climate change