The Clock is Ticking...

In an unprecedented announcement, some of the world’s leading scientists announced today that the world has once again nudged closer to a nuclear catastrophe and environmental disaster.

Today, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists (BAS) pushed the hand of its symbolic Doomsday Clock two minutes closer to midnight – the figurative end of civilization. (http://www.thebulletin.org/weekly-highlight/20070117.html)

The Clock has followed the progress of nuclear tensions around the world, adding recently the threat of climate change. The bulletin’s editor, Mark Strauss told The Associated Press: “There's a realization that we are changing our climate for the worse [and] that would have catastrophic effects. Although the threat is not as dire as that of nuclear weapons right now, in the long term we are looking at a serious threat.”

According to the latest news release, the BAS has concluded “that the dangers posed by climate change are nearly as dire as those posed by nuclear weapons. The effects may be less dramatic in the short term than the destruction that could be wrought by nuclear explosions, but over the next three to four decades climate change could cause drastic harm to the habitats upon which human societies depend for survival.”

The BAS reports: “Disruptions in climate already appear to be happening faster in some regions than earlier predicted. In some areas warming has interrupted normal patterns, allowing insects to spread into new habitats, carrying diseases and destroying flora and fauna in zones that have no evolutionary protection. Through flooding or desertification, climate change threatens the habitats and agricultural resources that societies depend upon for survival. Coral reefs will disappear, forest fires will be more intense and more frequent, and heat waves and storms more damaging. In coming years, coastal cities will bear the brunt of sea-level rise, as we have already witnessed in New Orleans, compelling major shifts in human settlement patterns. As such, climate change is also likely to contribute to mass migrations and even to wars over arable land, water, and other natural resources.” (http://www.thebulletin.org/weekly-highlight/weekly-highlight.html)