'Second nuclear period': Apocalypse comes near

According to a group of nuclear scientists, including scientists and Nobel laureate Stephen Hawking, the world is getting closer to the End of the World.

Apocalyptic clock is seen at a press conference in Washington on 17 January (Photo: AP)

These scientists have adjusted the minute of the Apocalypse to almost 0 hours to reflect concerns around global terrorism, Iran and the DPRK's unregulated nuclear ambitions and above all is a threat of climate change.

The Apocalypse Clock was established 60 years ago by a group of scientists from the Association of Atomic Scientists, shortly after the US dropped two atomic bombs on Japan. It is a symbol of the danger that people face from nuclear weapons.

Since 1947, the minute hand of the Apocalyptic Clock has been moved 18 times.Some important years:

- 1953 : at 0 hours less than 2 minutes after the US and the former Soviet Union gave hydrogen bombs.

- 1991 : at 0 hours less than 17 minutes when a new treaty on global nuclear weapons was signed.

- 2002: at 0 hours less than 7 minutes, a few months after the September 11 terrorist attacks and after the US withdrew from the anti-ballistic treaty.

But this is the first time this watch recognized the global warming threat that scientists call 'the second nuclear era'.

This watch, hanging from the University of Chicago, has been fixed at 7 minutes less than 0g since 2002. Yesterday, it inched another 2 minutes.

'The danger from climate change is as devastating as the danger of nuclear weapons,' scientists said. 'In the next three to four decades, climate change can cause irreparable harm to the living environment on which human society relies on it to survive'.

The Apocalypse's minute shift decision was made by the Committee of the Atomic Scientists Association in consultation with many leading scientists, including Stephen Hawking and 18 scientists who won Nobel Prize.

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