UPDATE: The BAS did indeed move the Doomsday Clock forward, by
one minute. It now reads five minutes to midnight. Tick, tick,
tick... doom. Listen closely this afternoon and you may hear the
ominous whirrings of the Doomsday Clock, counting us ever closer
to mankind's certain end. The clock, invented in 1947 in the
wake of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, tells the world –
symbolically – how close it is to total nuclear destruction.
Initially set at seven minutes to midnight (i.e. wipe-out), the
clock currently reads 11:54 PM. Later today, LiveScience
reports, the Washington-based Bulletin of Atomic Scientists
(BAS) will decide whether to adjust it to reflect current
threats to humankind. Hey, it could go backward. But the BAS, in
its annual review, has already listed plenty of reasons why the
past year may have speeded us on our path to destruction –
including the Fukushima nuclear disaster, growing nuclear
capabilities in Iran and North Korea, and the obstacles to
effective US policies against climate c