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THE DOOMSDAY CLOCK has moved closer to midnight than it has ever been and is now just 100 seconds away from striking 12, scientists said.
The clock, which serves as a metaphor for global apocalypse, was moved forward by 20 seconds.
The announcement from the clock’s keepers means the perceived threat is now more severe than it was last year and in 1953, when it was two minutes away.
Rachel Bronson, president and chief executive of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which sets the reading, said: “The world has entered into the realm of a two-minute warning, a period when danger is high and the margin for error low.”
She added: “It is 100 seconds to midnight.
“We are now expressing how close the world is to catastrophe in seconds – not hours, or even minutes.
“It is the closest to Doomsday we have ever been in the history of the Doomsday Clock.
“We now face a true emergency – an absolutely unacceptable state of world affairs that has eliminated any margin for error or further delay.”
Former Irish president Mary Robinson, chairwoman of The Elders and former UN high commissioner for human rights, described the announcement as a “solemn occasion”.
She said: “We ask world leaders to join us in 2020 as we work to pull humanity back from the brink.
“The Doomsday Clock now stands at 100 seconds to midnight, the most dangerous situation that humanity has ever faced.
“Now is the time to come together – to unite and to act.”
A statement from the bulletin said: “Humanity continues to face two simultaneous existential dangers – nuclear war and climate change – that are compounded by a threat multiplier, cyber-enabled information warfare, that undercuts society’s ability to respond.
“The international security situation is dire, not just because these threats exist, but because world leaders have allowed the international political infrastructure for managing them to erode.”
While the clock did not move in 2019, its minute hand was set forward in 2018 by 30 seconds, to two minutes before midnight.
It was adjusted in 2017 to two-and-a-half minutes to midnight from its previous setting of three minutes to midnight.
The countdown was established in 1947 by experts from The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists who were working on the Manhattan Project to design and build the first atomic bomb.
The bulletin is an independent non-profit organisation run by some of the world’s most eminent scientists.
It was originally intended to warn of the threat of nuclear armageddon.
But the Doomsday Clock also takes into account the likelihood of other emerging threats such as climate change and advances in biotechnology and artificial intelligence.
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Mary Robinson, Chairwoman of the Elders. Ffs. Where is she based now? The planet Vulcan?
@Michael Lynch: she’s actually rented a spot in the shire, right next to Michael D
@David Daly: He’s now known as Miggledee.
@Paraic: Cheers guys, this should guaruntee trump the last few votes he needs to get over line.
Who wastes their time predicting this?
@Mark Edwards: The “Bulletin of Atomic Scientists “?
@Conall: makes me wonder who these ‘scientists’ are..
@Mark Edwards: Why do you bother commenting about what you do not understand? Why don’t you do even a quick Google…..then maybe you may understand somewhat!
@523StarBar: makes me wonder why you’d put scientists in inverted commas?
@gm_cmanning: because the doomsday clock us described by the bulletin of atomic sciences as a metaphor. It’s not meant to be scientific. . It’s metaphoric and symbolic. Something the article doesn’t really put forward.
@523StarBar: This is exactly what they mention in the article. A bot account, 0 following, 0 followers, set up in January 2020 whose job is to muddy the waters and create confusion over the issue.
Anything to stop Liverpool winning the league!!
@James O’Donovan: destruction of the planet, worth it :-)
I don’t think we need a clock to tell us we are on the brink. Far to many people on this planet now and it’s getting awfully crowded. Smart technology now allows the horrors of the world to be distributed globally via social media which drives hated. As a species, we really do hate each other.
@Peter Cavey: there aren’t too many people, just an awful imbalance of resources. There’s around 1500 billionaires who have 60% of the worlds wealth hoarded..
@Peter Cavey:
Optimum population for the Earth with good management of resources is up to 20bn, so you’re way off, and no, we don’t hate each other but there are certain cabals that benefit from selling fear and division.
Did you know that Al Gore’s house uses up to 35 times more energy than the average family units household?
@Peter Cavey: Actually the world be in a population decline in the next decade.
@Raven: scientists reckon with current resource usage, we are overpopulated by 2 billion.
@523StarBar: Correct! Most get confused over this.
@523StarBar: there is too many people and as more are brought out of extreme poverty (via capitalism) then the demand for meat and other foods will increase leading to more deforestation and increasing climate change. It has nothing to do with billionaires
@Raven: we will have civil unrest in half of world’s countries in this decade. We produce infinite amounts of effectively forever waste and dump it back into our finite environment. Arable land is shrinking through overheating in arid regions. Habitat and species are been rapidly lost as we tear into more rainforest to supply the growing billions of humans. 20 billion would be a pretty dangerous world considering we are guaranteed a percentage of loopers.
@Stef123: that’s actually false. The growth rate (a positive figure) is decreasing, but will be a long time before we see a nominal decrease year on year. See the late Prof Albert Bartlett on YouTube explain how a small percentage increase can have a surprisingly rapid doubling in nominal terms. For exponential growth, which is how our specie has been growing in numbers, you divide 70, the golden number, by percentage growth rate. At 2% growth rate, population doubles in 35 years.
@The next small thing: it’s ok to disagree, i do not hold the view you have and you don’t hold the view I have and that’s ok.
@Monty Donotno: you say ‘we’ produce waste and ‘we’ tear down rainforests etc. we as humans.. yes.. but my point is that most of us don’t agree with this or make the decisions. But ‘we’ are taking the hit and paying the carbon tax etc. we are also fed lines of over population and not enough money.. if 1500 people hold 60% of the wealth? It isn’t overpopulation. If massive industries frack and hack down forests .. these massive industries are owned by said billionaires. They’ve enough money to fix major problems and turn the world ‘green’ to save it.. but they aren’t.
@523StarBar: and pretty soon they’ll be getting off this planet. Think elysium (think that’s the movie name). Meanwhile earth is turning into idiocracy
@523StarBar: MORE PEOPLE, MORE CLIMATE CHANGE EMISSIONS
People emit carbon. Gross disparities exist in the CO2 emissions of citizens of different countries but high population can drive high emissions even where per capita output is low. (Indian per capita emissions are a fraction of those of the USA but it joins the US as one of the world’s top three carbon emitters.) https://populationmatters.org/news/2018/04/09/population-factfulness-where-hans-rosling-goes-wrong
Time will tell.like Acid rain the new Ice age. I suppose they have to convince us so we wont mind paying all these Carbon taxes.
@Martin Forde: exactly.. imagine if we’d started paying carbon tax earlier .. it would have prevented this.. oh wait. No it wouldn’t ..
@Martin Forde: Acid rain isn’t an issue because we listened to scientists and fixed it. Stupid comparison.
Sure each day month and year we’re all closer to death! Have a great sleep everyone.
The picture is straight of a comedy sketch… Hilarious bullshlt
So 1953 it was two minutes away or 120 seconds now it’s 2020 and it’s 100 seconds away doesn’t seem much for 67 years
My clock is closer than it’s ever been to quarter past ten………that’s how clocks work Mary,they keep ticking towards the numbers on the face
Hit snooze and get 9 more minutes
@Mock the weak govt.: love that comment. Yea, we will just hit the snooze button. Let’s take it for its entertainment value. Those progressives are finally losing their marbles.
Smile Mary ffs
Surely they could afford to go digital?
Who cares
@Aaron Wheatley: You should.
I’m definitely buying a Lamborghini now so. I’ll put the house up as collateral. Every cloud n’ all that!!
Does Robinson think her private jet jaunts dont count?
Stick it up on Shandon, sure when that hits midnight the other four clocks will read, 10 to midnight, 25 past 10, quarter to 9 and half past 8! Cork to the rescue, again!
The clock on my wall reads 10.55pm.
Mary robinson I think is clockwork, a cuckoo clock
If Mary Robinson stopped flying around the world telling us all to stop flying around the world we’d probably save a good 20 seconds. Does that woman do anything else but fly !
@Pat Buckley: She takes herself a little too seriously. Typical virtue-signaling progressive. Personal behavior contradicting her beliefs.
Is this because of the Coronavirus or just to miss Trump off for his compelling and rousing speech in Davos.
What a crock .. not a clock, it’s a crock!
@523StarBar: the clock is slow, It is. Already too late to save the planet. Go out and enjoy yourselves, our time is up.
@Martin Scaldbag: Don’t give up Martin.
Legend has it, that the clocks name is actually Greta
Already lost in the noise, barely surfacing before being buried beneath business news. I feel like I’m in a bus where the driver has let go of the wheel, has climbed out of his seat and is now asking me about football results. “Crashing is too stressful to think about, let’s talk about something enjoyable in the short time we have left. Lighten up!”. The world has gone insane.
Ban Air Travel. Stop breading more cows. Use the Uranium -238 in the nuclear warheads to make modern fission reactors. Use this nuclear energy to get to 100% renewable energy gen worldwide. One problem can help solve the other.
Emmissions are high due to Global Trade, and Global Travel. Stop flying around the world and buying consumer goods from far away places so (transport). If we do that ie. go back to 1950 will this sort it? Are there any solar system factors at play?
Just thought I’d post this comment at midnight.
Fear, Fear,Fear
Very surprised and disappointed in Mary Robinson for an intelligent woman to be involved in this nonsense.
What exactly is going to happen when it eventually hits Midnight anyway?
In a time when we are urged to be more open and aware about mental health , this nonsense is embarrassing.
Cop on Mary.
Who do you call in this scenario… The guardians of the galaxy or captain planet?
Ireland needn’t worry. We’re an hour behind.
A clock of sh!te.
Thanos is coming
@The Red Devil: judging by the percentage of sheer stupidity shown here he’d want to click his fingers a good few times.
Literally…. a serious meeting of world leaders on how dangerously close we, as a species, are to causing our own demise with the mass extention of millions of species of animals, pollinators, birds, fish, arable land, fresh water and on and on yet the idiots just joke around blind to what’s literally in front of their face.
The apartment block is burning out of control, the owner, engineers and safety officers are on loud speaker shouting to exit immediately yet the dumbass residents are too distracted by Love Island and sharing the latest ego stroking memes. It’s should be a capital crime to be this dumb.
Dr. Manhattan will sort it
I knew Liverpool winning the league was bad but not this bad.
“It is the closest to Doomsday we have ever been in the history of the Doomsday Clock.
That line right there pretty much sums up the article.
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Common sense should tell us we should immediately ban the destruction of all trees for starters. And stop 5G. Never tested on humans, even though it has shown huge negative effects on insects, birds and small animals. 50,000 satellites to orbit earth to facilitate 5G, sending mass radiation 24/7, no safe haven available ever again. We are building a microwave around the earth. No escape. We are doomed, greed has overtaken common sense and morals.
Yes perfect, just as they are freaking out everyone with a new virus from China.
The future is bright
Right now, global warming can’t come fast enough for me as I am famishing. I see more befits than harm. The climate apocalypse is the new secular religion. I would prefer to its previous rendition of it being judgment day. I have less to worry about. How wonk can one get?
Id say Donald Trump is S%*tting his pants.
Greta thungberg is her little pet , who;e Greta is happy and well according to her father. Teenagers are worried sick some even killing themselves. Shame on Mary Robinson for fanning the flames of total fear . It’s all lies.
Mary Robinson the UN globalist shill. I’d take anything she says with a pinch of salt. She is the main instagator of the UN migration Pack and signed it with out Irish ppls consent, making it possible for ppl to migrate using the excuse of climate change. She’s head of the global cabal involvement in changing the world forever . Winners the very rich . Losers western European countries.
I have a Bose clock that skips a minute every month. It could be a moon/sun cycle thing but then I’m not a scientist, maybe my clock has been telling me the end is nigh for the last year
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