The world is inching closer to nuclear Armageddon, a group of prominent scientists and security experts said on Friday.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has kept a Doomsday clock since 1947 as a reminder of the dangers of nuclear proliferation.
The clock will be moved forward on Wednesday at simultaneous events in Washington and London whose speakers will include physicist Stephen Hawking, the Chicago-based periodical said in a statement.
The Bulletin warned that the world had entered a "Second Nuclear Age marked by grave threats."
Nuclear ambitions
It cited the nuclear ambitions of Iran and North Korea; escalating terrorism; unsecured nuclear materials in Russia and elsewhere; the continuing "launch-ready" status of 2,000 of the 25,000 nuclear weapons held by the US and Russia; and "new pressure from climate change for expanded civilian nuclear power that could increase proliferation risks."
First set at seven minutes to midnight -- a phrase that has become part of pop culture -- the clock has been moved 17 times in response to global events.
Recent shift
The most recent shift was in 2002 when it moved two minutes forward because the US withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and terrorists were known to be seeking nuclear and biological weapons.
It currently stands once again at seven minutes to midnight, the closest to danger since the end of the Cold War.
Founded in 1945 by scientists who had helped develop the atomic bomb and were deeply concerned about the use of nuclear weapons, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists counts 17 Nobel laureates among its boards of directors and sponsors.
* 2002: 7 minutes to midnight. The US rejects a series of arms control treaties and announces it will withdraw from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. Terrorists seek to acquire and use nuclear and biological weapons.
* 1998: 9 minutes to midnight. India and Pakistan "go public" with nuclear tests. The US and Russia cannot agree on further deep reductions in their nuclear stockpiles.
* 1991: 17 minutes to midnight. The US and the Soviet Union sign the long-stalled Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) and announce further unilateral cuts in tactical and strategic nuclear weapons.
* 1990: 10 minutes to midnight. The Cold War ends as the Iron Curtain falls.
* 1984: 3 minutes to midnight. The arms race accelerates.
* 1981: 4 minutes to midnight. Both superpowers develop more weapons for fighting a nuclear war. Terrorist actions, repression of human rights, and conflicts in Afghanistan, Poland and South Africa add to world tension.
* 1972: 12 minutes to midnight. The US and the Soviet Union sign the first Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.
* 1969: 10 minutes to midnight. The US Senate ratifies the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
* 1968: 7 minutes to midnight. France and China acquire nuclear weapons; wars rage in the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent and Vietnam.
* 1953: 2 minutes to midnight. The US and the Soviet Union test thermonuclear devices within nine months of one another.
* 1949: 3 minutes to midnight. The Soviet Union explodes its first atomic bomb.
* 1947: 7 minutes to midnight. The clock first appears on the Bulletin cover as a symbol of nuclear danger.
Source: AFP
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