Doomsday Clock ticks one minute closer to annihilation
The boffins who run the Doomsday Clock – an estimate of how close humanity is to annihilation by climate change or nuclear war - have just moved the minute hand one minute closer to midnight. Invented by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists (BAS) in 1947, the clock represents nuclear danger with midnight representing the end of …
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Google should run it
All needs to happen is Google automatically crawls the net for new stories about nuclear warheads / climate change and alters the clock for us. Then if it gets to 12 then the Streetview cars can release nerve gas and we all die.
I am very glad that
past girlfriends refer to me as a cockroach as it means I should survive when the bombs finally drop.
Hang on a minute
I thought humans only appeared on the planet at 30 seconds to midinght? http://www2.nau.edu/~lrm22/lessons/timeline/24_hours.html Damn those jurassic nukes! Does this mean we don't exist yet?
@Khaptain -2
"Think how many problems would be resolved simply by reducing the population. There would be more farmland/food to go around, the available natural energies would last longer, we would automatically reduce pollution and waste, the forests would begin to grow/increase." It's funny that those are more a limitation of the current system than of any kind of population number. Take the first iteam you are worried about; farmland. Well, let us build skyscrappers to produce food. We grow our young humans in tower blocks, so why not young carrots? As for energies...well, there is a status quo to be maintained. And right now the idea that energy needs to be consumed and never replaced is, again, a facet of the current system. That will change; and many folks are looking into it. Maybe even if they find Mr Higgs they'll shed some light on some new chapter. Pollution is the flip side of the same coin. Again, a systemic issue, rather than a population one. Oh, what system am i talking about? Aye...capitalism....sort that and we're sorted.. :) With hope .
We grow our young humans in tower blocks, so why not young carrots?
Try 'sunlight' And if you think you are going to use windmills to generate electric light, well the output from a windmill is about one percent of the solar insolation per unit area, so thats even worse .. I suppose you could have loads of nuclear reactors acting to generate energy to synthesise all the food.. ..but that's off the average green agenda, isn't it?
We grow our young humans in tower blocks, so why not young carrots?
Because carrots aren't worth much and tower blocks are expensive to build and maintain.
I'm sure...
@itzman. I'm sure that I've seen the sun shining on tower blocks. There's nothing intrinsically wrong about using multilevel growing areas except maybe the logistics involved in irrigation...
Re: why not young carrots?
Because agricultural land is much cheaper for now.
The historical trend
The clock has stood at 7 minutes to midnight in 1980, 1968, 1960 and 1947. Apparently today is more dangerous than any of those times, but significantly less dangerous than in 1949 (3 minutes, when the USSR got their first A-bomb) or 1953 (2 minutes, the first H-bomb). The world now contains an unknown number of such weapons, some of them in the hands of quite deranged nutters. On the other hand, it no longer contains the USSR or Curtis LeMay. Apparently these two factors sorta cancel out. Yeah. That sounds scientific.
This Dumbsday Clock ...
... was never anything but political propaganda to terrorise Yanks into obedience to their Pentagovernment. Proof of the fact is that, upon the USAn warcriminals being deterred by Soviet parity from continuing to nuke anyone at the drop of a hat, they moved it *closer* to midnight. Therefore, for correct understanding, it is better to consider this gimmick in reverse ~ as a political counter heading inexorably down towards zero ability of the USA to monopolise power and become world dictator.
The ultimate irony of "evolution"
*If* you accept the premise that we are over-populating the planet and the only way to resolve this is by restriction (either voluntary or otherwise) on the production of children. Then you discount compulsory, as this requires a totalitarian regime which we don't have, then you are left with voluntary. Which leads to the situation where the "intelligent" members of society reduce their family size whilst the "less intelligent" will continue to breed like rabbits. End result an evolution into a more stupid race. Oh well, sounds like we are doomed whichever way we go then :-)
@All
Yes I have put my money where my mouth is. I have taken the liberal and freeminded decision not to have children. We have a beautiful planet, nature has provided us with everything and what do I see, greed, destruction , polution and f***cking lawyers. Is this what you guys call freedom of choice. The politicians, bankers and various other Capitilistic, Greedy bastards have done there utmost to ensure that you and I as individuals have very little choice. As an example, people do not get paid in relation to their labour, they get paid in relation to what their employer decides to give them. When you go to a supermarket you can only buy what the supermarket has decided they can make a profit from, it has nothing to do with your actual needs, ad infinitum. Having children has nothing to do with personal choice, it is more about personal greed and egotistical desire. There is no such thing as "Human Survival" as mentioned above read Richard Dawkins, the gene pool is far stronger than the human being, it will definately give you some food for thought. How many of you "Fathers" would be able to provide for your children if the state did not furnish benefits, unless of course you are one of those overpaid people that have a salary which does not reflect your actual capacity. Do you truly believe that you could support your entire familly "alone", imagine for a moment that you really did have to build the barn, dig the garden, shoot some wild pigs etc..... The more mouths you had to feed the less likely you would have a grin on your face. The contemporary First World Human Being is basically a selfish bastard that knows no better than his own desires, unfortunately he is seldom capable of achieving those desires just by the fruit of his own labours. ( Someone always pays the price for your "apparent" wealth.) Why are the children never taught to "Think for themselves". They are always taught how to think in a way that will benefit those above and certainely not for the child itself. Our society has been nurtured to a point whereby individuals can no longer fend for themselves, they are completely at the mercy of the state. How many truly Autonomous people do you know, Ok lets say someone with at least 20% autonomy. When the state falls through, and it will, just how will you feed all your children ? Over-Population is your legacy to your children, they will have less space, less choice and an even smaller understanding of their own potiential. Sounds f***cking wonderfull. No, I don't believe in some kind of totalinarian society, but I do believe that we as intelligent beings should be capable of a little bit more forethought in relation to what is self evident. "When you throw a piece of meat to starving dogs, how civil will you expect them to be ". [Why don't the carraige returns appear in the preview]
@Khaptain
You're of course right about 'Human Survival', I simply phrased it that way for the sake of brevity. I support a family on a piss-poor wage (compared to my output) and without benefits. Admittedly I struggle to do so, but it is possible. I don't of course run a farm so haven't felt the need to build any barns or slaughter any pigs. My kids are taught to think for themselves, anything I can furnish them with to potentially help them in the future is good. I haven't a clue about farming, so no I won't be teaching them that myself. I believe the idea is, for better or worse, it's civilities that set us apart from those starving dogs. Doesn't always work that way it's true, but I'm not convinced we'd be a better race if it never worked that way. I'm curious as to how you expect any of us to teach kids everything you list? I can't think of anyone _ANYWHERE_ that is capable of living life purely on the back of his own labours. Even if you wanted to live the Goode Life, would you not need to purchase seeds (which would involve someone elses work?). As it stands, Animals tend to starve to death if there isn't sufficient food around. Humans do to, but there are people who at least try to get others food.
@Khaptain
"I have taken the liberal and freeminded decision not to have children." Thank you, Khaptain! Very nice of you. My kids won't need to worry about bumping into your offspring in the future.
Never mind the bolloks.
Unfortunately Vlad is a believer in " The future lies within you children". Wrong, the future lies in the here and now. The future is nothing more than a concept for those that don't have answers today.
Helluva chat up line there, Khappy
No wonder you can't get a girlfriend.
You're just turning defeat into a moral victory - your politics follows on from you being an irrationally pessimistic sod.
@Khaptain
So if I can't pay for all my children alone, I'm a weight for the system and if I do have enough money it's because I'm overpaid ?
If I really had to "build the barn", then I believe I wouldn't have stopped at 4 kids because I would need hands to help me. More kids now would mean more hands later. And if I had the need to hunt for my food, that would mean even more kids because accidents do happen. Can't really take the chance to have a shortage of hands because the wild boar killed our youngest now can we ?
I can respect your decision of not having children, even if I don't understand it. But don't try to pass it as the one good "self evident" thing to do because it is not. Over population is not the problem, it's over utilization of resource that is. There's room for far more if you don't waste what you don't need. There's already food enough for everyone, but we (developped countries) prefer to throw it in the garbage instead of sharing it with those who need.
Stupid Breeders
See "Idiocracy"
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0387808/
Ho-hum.
More pointless propaganda from fascist bigots. A realistic assessment would have moved the clock forward 4 minutes because of the other group of irrational fascists in Iran who are intent on using one to implement the next Final Solution to the Jewish Problem, with no regard to possible outcomes of that action.
Rich, Creamy Hypocrisy
... to complain of antiquated propaganda whilst parroting your own warmonglerish modern variety. And naturally, whomsoever faileth to follow the Imperial Diktat and dares defend himself becomes the 'New Hitler' who must be scheduled for destruction, along with whatever nation produced him, to save our precious withering flower of 'democracy', of course. But really, this pisspoor political dementia you so proudly display has meantime worn pretty thin. However, to stretch the gaps even further, please provide links for any facts you claimed and your working definition of 'fascist', thanks!Scale
What the hell kind of scale are they using? I know there's a (small) risk people might start nuking other people, but surely the scale runs from 12:01 to 00:00, that is 720 minutes. Putting us around 23:55 would mean we were 99% of the way to armageddon - it sure don't feel like it.
Bitter?
One has to wonder, out of the population-control proponents, how voluntary their lack of reproduction really was... Mines the one with the 3-day old in the pocket!
@John P
Personally speaking my decision was made voluntarily after having lived and worked in several countries of differing political and religous regimes. After seeing that the same damned mess was everywhere, albeit wearing a different hat, I took the decision not to add my genes to the pool. That was 20 odd years ago and I have never changed my mind. [¨PS - Without going into the details I know that my "genes" are perfectly capable of reproducing] Quick call the helpdesk my Carriage Returns have disappeared again.
Arbitrary
What are they going to do if it reaches midnight and we aren’t all turned to ash by flaming nuclear death? Of course the answer is go by seconds of course... right untill they run out of them and then they're buggered. It’s all a bit arbitrary isn’t it? Anyone can make random stuff up, infact i will. I hereby declare the cupcake count of terror. We are currently at 4 cupcakes to annihilation, three if I get peckish after lunch…
@Debe
Time is infinite, they cannot run out, there will always be a remaining divisable element even though we don't know the name for it yet. Cupcake sounds fine. Just remember that you must always split that last remaining piece cupcake in two, that way you can always have your cake and eat it too.
I'm struggling with....
...midnight represents the end of all humanity. Who changes the time from 23:59?
"Who changes the time from 23:59?"
That's easy.
The same guy who adds a day every 4 years.
The Leap Year Fairy.
Altogether now ( alright the IM fans then! ).....
"Two! Minutes! Toooo miiiiidniiiiihgt! The hands that threaten dooooom!
Two! Minutes! Toooo miiiiidniiiiihgt! The kill the unborn in the woooomb!"
Getting closer to midnight?
Wake me up when it's 6:00am...
also
posts are automatically going up without 'moderation', which is an improvement, whereas killing off CR is the unpardonable sin.
Tick Tock Goes The Corpus Clock
Through-out all recorded history the unexplained, the hiding of the truth, facts and fictions alike have been an on going conspiracy. The most current being the 2012 conspiracy per say.
However when you open your mind put down your smart phone, turn off your tv, unplug from the iNet and reflect about what you think you know, think you have read, think is real or unreal...
is it not justified by your self; what is and what is not.
Choose to believe is always in the end up to you and only you.
Sift through the arguments for or against a particular theory will leave you with a head ache. Like this one "Revelations" written so long ago however the writings disturbingly are so familiar to events in our world today. Is it a conspiracy? Depends on who you ask I suppose.
Have a look here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIVjn_mrJVU and remember in the end ...
You Decide.
So let me get this straight....
We're 17 minutes to midnight, but stockpiles of nukes are being cut by the major powers, and the only use of nukes that seems realistic is a massive counterstrike against a rogue state like Iran or North Korea, and only if that rogue state knowingly commits suicide and nukes a neighbor first. Personally, that sounds more like 6 AM in the morning and that mankind is fairly safe from nuclear self-immolation.
Maybe the scientists know about the alien invasion that is coming and will certainly require us to go nuclear so at least a few of us have a chance to survive!!
WTF?
So when there is nothing specific for the world to be afraid of (what, are they blind?), it suffices to now be afraid of imaginary things?
The only clock that scares me is the one I know is about to ring when I've had a night of not being able to sleep...
And yes, Happy 2012. I await seeing the Mayans proved wrong. ;)
I remember when the Doomsday Clock
was called Ezekiel's Wheel. That was thousands of years ago. Nothing ever happened.
Clocks
A clock is a rather naive representation but it has been used many times and it is always a few seconds from midnight. However the problem and solution may be one and the same: if we were to have a nuclear conflict tomorrow then the resulting nuclear winter would resolve all our global warming issues. So the solution is a nuclear war. Only one question: whose backyard are we going to use?
Selfish and irresponsible
Having children is fine, if you can afford to support them properly yourself and do not expect anyone else to be forced to help you.
The decision to have children is an important one, and should be made taking into consideration all relevant factors. Most people do not think about this decision before making it. There are a large number of individuals of little education and meagre means who have learned only that having children entitles them to leech off others who work for a living.
Any person with an ounce of intelligence, looking at the decision rationally, can choose when they want to have children and how many. If they can look at the world as it is today and see that there are limited resources, then a decision to increase the population by making more than two new people is a reprehensible demonstration of extreme selfishness and irresponsibility.
I may have children one day. When I do I will ensure that decent values are imparted to them, that they receive a fitting eduction, and I will PAY FOR THEIR UPBRINGING MYSELF.
There is no reasonable argument for forcing honest working people to pay for others' children. Such a structure only encourages the expectation of low-life to have everything handed to them on a plate for no effort, and perpetuates this attitude over generations.
Children
We have one child, and have taken a deliberate decision to not have anymore directly because both my wife and I feel that human population is near out of control. Since the 1950's (not that long ago) the population of the planet has exploded and is set to expand exponentially, near doubling in the not distant future.
Balance that against (in the UK) there are more than 30,000 children requring permanent adoption and yet only 83 were placed into permanent homes during 2010-2011.
We felt the choice was clear; restrict ourselves to one birth and then adopt. I urge anyone thinking they'd like a large(r) family to consider the same path as we've taken.
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