Doomsday Clock

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The Doomsday Clock is a device maintained by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists at the University of Chicago which is used to indicate the threat of a nuclear, biological, or environmental disaster. It is a clock face, where midnight represents a nuclear war, and noon represents world peace. It has been "operational" since 1947 when it first appeared on the cover of the Bulletin, where it has appeared ever since. The lowest time it reached was 11:43, following the signing of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. It was closest to midnight during 1953, after the US and the USSR tested their thermonuclear weapons, where it read 11:58. [1]

The last time the clock changed was in January 2015, when it was set to "3 minutes to midnight", due to "unchecked climate change, global nuclear weapons modernizations, and outsized nuclear weapons arsenals", and the failure of "international leaders" to do anything about it.[2] The previous change was in 2012, when it was moved from 11:54 to 11:55.

Graph of the changes to the Doomsday Clock time since 1947. Note: The lower the graph becomes, the higher the probability of catastrophe is deemed to be.
A different kind of clock, counting towards a different kind of doom

[edit] See also

[edit] External Links

[edit] Footnotes

  1. Doomsday Clock Timeline
  2. http://thebulletin.org/press-release/press-release-it-now-3-minutes-midnight7950
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