Doomsday ClockBulletin of the Atomic Scientists moves Doomsday Clock forward in dire warning

Published 28 January 2015

TheBulletin of the Atomic Scientists, a 70-year old publication which monitors nuclear, security, and environmental developments, has pushed ahead its symbolic Doomsday Clock by two minutes — from five minutes to midnight to three minutes — amidst growing concerns about climate change and nuclear arsenal upkeep.

TheBulletin of the Atomic Scientists, a 70-year old publication which monitors nuclear, security, and environmental developments, has pushed ahead its symbolic Doomsday Clock by two minutes — from five minutes to midnight to three minutes — amidst growing concerns about climate change and nuclear arsenal upkeep.

As the International Business Times reports, the committee of eminent scientists who decides on setting the clock, warn that rising sea levels, melting glaciers, intensifying storms, and devastating droughts are all factors that have contributed to their appraisal that the planet could be in serious trouble.

Additionally, the group cited the “global nuclear weapons modernization and outsized nuclear weapons arsenals in the United States, Russia and other nations” as an additional reason for concern.

“It was inaction on climate change and nuclear weapon dismantling and reduction,” said Kennette Benedict, the executive director for the organization. “You’ve seen the reports on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) report that the last decade was the warmest in many, many decades. Science is getting much clearer now. We’re really observing quite extraordinary changes, especially in the Antarctic, and the inevitability of the sea level rise.”

The group cited four factors which have contributed to the deteriorating conditions on the planet.

First, climate change is no longer a potential future development, but something which is already underway.

“Human influence on the climate system is clear and growing, with impacts observed on all continents,” said the IPCC in a November report. Due to the past 100 years of extensive fossil fuel use and carbon dioxide emissions, the group cited examples such as increasing heat and forest die-off in the western United States and higher sea levels by more than a foot compared to a century previous.

Secondly, 2014 was the hottest year on record in the twentieth century, at levels not seen since 1880, according to NOAA. Even more worryingly, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) reported that the ten warmest years in the past 135 were all after the year 2000.

Further, scientists warn that they expect temperatures to continue to rise, possibly to extreme warming conditions, unless the world reduces its greenhouse emissions. This will require countries reducing coal use by up to 80 percent and oil by 33 percent by 2050, or temperatures could exceed multiple degrees Fahrenheit on average.

Lastly, the Doomsday Clock was moved forward due to the “inadequate” UN climate talks which took place in Peru this past December.

“I think it almost takes a change in consciousness and we hope that might happen in Paris [a future 2015 UN climate summit], that there might be more money set aside for the people who will suffer most from climate change. Talk is talk, what we need is action at this point,” Benedict said

More action, or the remaining minutes could tick away.