Doomsday Clock is ticking

The Doomsday Clock was created by physicists in 1947 to warn of the dangers of nuclear weapons.

Scientists from the Bulletin of Atomic Sciences (BAS) magazine at the University of Chicago, USA, announced on January 24 that the time the world faces the risk of apocalypse is 23:58 (just two minutes to midnight) according to theRTThis timeline represents the moment the world is destroyed by nuclear weapons, dangerous man-made technologies, or natural disasters.

The BAS representative said the main events this year that kept the Doomsday Clock at nearly midnight were US President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal and his announcement to withdraw from the nuclear treaty with Russia in February. "These are negative steps in the process of global nuclear disarmament," the scientists said.

BAS also identified climate change as a factor pushing the Earth closer to disaster. Over the past two years, global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions have been on the rise. Therefore, BAS recommends that countries cut emissions to avoid the most negative impacts of climate change.

The Doomsday Clock is a symbolic tool created in 1947 by the BAS board of 15 Nobel scholars to warn of the nearing end of humanity. This year, the Doomsday Clock remains the same as last year, but the two-minute mark is the closest the Doomsday Clock has been since 1953, when the US and the Soviet Union conducted nuclear bomb tests.