Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Ticking down to Doomsday: See, I told you the planet was doomed. On the very day I discovered that my domestic actions couldn't meet UK emissions targets, so the world-infamous Doomsday Clock has clicked ominously closer to midnight. This symbolic timepiece belongs to the Chicago-based Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, and they occasionally shift its minute hand according to the perceived threat of global annihilation. The clock started out at "7 minutes to midnight" in 1947 and has oscillated back and forth ever since, reaching a scary high of 11:58 at the height of the Cold War in the 50s and a low of 11:43 in the relative international calm of the early 90s. Today, five years after the last change, the clock juddered forward from "7 minutes to midnight" to "5 minutes to midnight". This time shift is partly a response to increased nuclear capability in the developing world but also (for the very first time) recognition of the increasing seriousness of impending climate catastrophe. We're all going to die soon, apparently, either blown to pieces or slowly drowned. I just wanted to apologise if this sudden apocalyptic jolt is in any way connected to my lack of loft insulation.
• A Doomsday Clock timeline (1947-2007)
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