Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
Available On Air Stations
Watch Live

The Doomsday Clock Moves 2 Minutes Closer To Midnight

Professor Richard Somerville of the University of California in San Diego today unveils the "Doomsday Clock" showing that the world is now three minutes away from disaster.
NICHOLAS KAMM AFP/Getty Images
Professor Richard Somerville of the University of California in San Diego today unveils the "Doomsday Clock" showing that the world is now three minutes away from disaster.

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (BAS) has moved the Doomsday Clock two minutes closer to disaster. It now stands at three minutes before midnight.

The BAS was created in 1945 by the scientists who had participated in the Manhattan Project, developing the atomic bomb. They came up with the Doomsday Clock in 1947, after the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, to alert the public to the dangers of nuclear proliferation. Midnight represents a global catastrophe.

Since the clock's creation, it's been adjusted 18 times — sometimes further from midnight to reflect improvement.

Advertisement

The scientists moved the clock toward destruction today because they are worried about climate change and efforts to modernize nuclear weapons stockpiles. The BAS expressed particular concern over rising sea levels. The last time it was at the 11:57 p.m. mark was in 1984, when tensions escalated between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.

The Doomsday Clock's minute hand was last moved in January 2012, when it was pushed by a minute to five till midnight.

Copyright 2015 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.