Doomsday Clock Was 1 Minute Closer to Midnight

“末日之钟”拨快一分钟

世界末日钟是一虚构钟面，由芝加哥大学的《原子科学家公报》杂志于1947年设立，标示出世界受核武器威胁的程度：12时整象征核战爆发，杂志社因应世界局势将分针拨前或拨后，以此提醒各界正视问题。最近一次调整在2010年1月15日，分钟被拨后1分钟，距离子夜6分钟。近日，美国杂志《原子科学家公报》的科学家委员会宣布把“末日之钟”拨快1分钟，这意味着距离象征世界灾难末日的午夜时分仅剩5分钟。

Scientists pushed the hands of the “doomsday clock” forward one minute from last year, signalling their increasing pessimism about the efforts of world leaders to handle global threats.

“It is now five minutes to midnight,” the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists（BAS） said in a sober assessment of the current trends. “Two years ago, it appeared that world leaders might address the truly global threats that we face. In many cases, that trend has not continued or been reversed.”

In January 2010, the clock’s minute hand was pushed back one minute from five to six minutes before midnight. Midnight symbolizes humanity’s destruction.

The clock setting, which has been a staple since 1947, represents the severity of the perceived threat to humanity from nuclear or biological weapons, climate change and other human?鄄caused disasters. When began this annual tradition, the BAS set the time at seven minutes to midnight. Following the first test of the hydrogen bomb, the doomsday clock ticked to two minutes before midnight in 1953. When the United States and Russia began to reduce their nuclear arsenals in 1991, the Bulletin set the clock at 17 minutes to midnight.

In explaining its latest move, the BAS said they were sorry for the ability of global leaders to move ahead on ridding the world of nuclear weapons.

There are about 19,500 nuclear weapons in the world today, according to the BAS, which cautioned that “it is still possible for radical groups to acquire and use highly enriched uranium and plutonium to wreak havoc in nuclear attacks.”

Referenced to last year’s accident at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear facility, the disaster underscored the urgency of developing safer nuclear reactor designs as well as better oversight, training and attention.

The gloom did not end there. The Bulletin believes that the world may have been closer to“a point of no return in efforts to prevent catastrophe from changes in Earth’s atmosphere.” It said that“in the absence of finding alternatives to carbon?鄄emitting energy technologies within five years,” the world will be doomed to a warmer climate, harsher weather, droughts, famine, water scarcity, rising sea levels, loss of island nations, and increasing ocean acidification.

“Unfortunately, Einstein’s statement in 1946 that ‘everything has changed, save the way we think,’ still remains true,” said BAS co?鄄chair Lawrence Krauss. “The temporary developments of two years ago have not been sustained, and it makes sense to move the clock closer to midnight, back to the value it had in 2007.”