World is now ‘three minutes before armageddon’

The clock, devised by the Chicago-based Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, now stands at three minutes to midnight, or doomsday.

The bulletin, which is self-tasked with keeping the public informed of the world’s nuclear peril, as well as climate change, has put the clock at its closest to midnight since 1984, during the cold war. It was last adjusted in January 2012, when it was moved one minute closer to midnight.

World leaders have failed to act with the speed or on the scale required to protect citizens from potential catastrophe. Kennette Benedict

The bulletin’s science and security board, which adjusts the clock, said steps to address climate change do not match expectations of even five years ago.

Nuclear arms

Bulletin Executive Director Kennette Benedict explained: “Unchecked climate change and nuclear arms race resulting from modernisation of huge arsenals pose extraordinary and undeniable threats to the continued existence of humanity.

“World leaders have failed to act with the speed or on the scale required to protect citizens from potential catastrophe. These failures of leadership endanger every person on earth.”

Sweeping nuclear weapons modernisation programmes and a disarmament machinery that has ground to a halt have dampened cautious optimism about the possibility of keeping the nuclear arms race in check, the scientists said.

Climate change

The board recommended action to cap greenhouse gas emissions, cut spending on nuclear weapons modernisation programmes and a renewed drive toward nuclear disarmament.

Scientist Richard Somerville added: “2014 is the warmest year on record globally. Nine of the 10 warmest years on record have all occurred since 2000. The warming trend in recent decades is unmistakable.

“Science clearly demonstrates that human activity is the dominant cause of this warming. If global emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat trapping gases continue to rise, the severity of climate change impacts will inevitability increase.”