back to article Doomsday Clock says 3 minutes to midnight. Again

The famous Doomsday Clock, which has been showing anywhere between 17 and two minutes to midnight since 1947, has advanced to three-minutes-to for the third time – on this occasion due to a perceived increase in the menace from human-driven climate change. The organisation which runs the Clock, the Bulletin of the Atomic …

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  1. Zog_but_not_the_first
    Mushroom

    All those nukes...

    They're still out there.

    1. Pete 2 Silver badge

      Re: All those nukes...

      > They're still out there.

      In theory, yes.

      However, it's 50 years since anyone's put a nuke on a rocket, lit the blue touchpaper and had a successful "boom" - rather than a <phut>, ooops or "oh crap it's heading back in our direction". That means that the last people who did it (assuming they were in their 20's and 30's) are now retired and the people they trained and passed on the "tricks of the trade" to are now getting on and have (presumably) passed on all the folklore to a new generation.

      So would a system that was last end-to-end tested half a century ago, with all the subsequent innovation, upgrades, redesigns, changes and cost-cutting have any realistic chance of working? I can't see much hope for it - but I hope nobody reads this and decides to try it out.

      1. John Sanders
        IT Angle

        Re: All those nukes...

        """So would a system that was last end-to-end tested half a century ago, with all the subsequent innovation, upgrades, redesigns, changes and cost-cutting have any realistic chance of working? I can't see much hope for it - but I hope nobody reads this and decides to try it out."""

        The engineering and science bits resound yes.

        Any modern IT system introduced in the last 30 years not so.

      2. Matt Bryant Silver badge
        Mushroom

        Re: Pete2 Re: All those nukes...

        ".....So would a system that was last end-to-end tested half a century ago, with all the subsequent innovation, upgrades, redesigns, changes and cost-cutting have any realistic chance of working?......" IIRC, shortly after the fall of the Iron Curtain, one of the ex-Soviet Republics found itself with dozens of Russian ICBMs, and managed to launch a salvo of four by accident. Thankfully, two failed to launch out of their silos and the other two both failed shortly after launch.

        1. David Given

          Re: Pete2 All those nukes...

          Oo. Got a link? I'd be fascinated to know more.

          I've always wondered whether *anyone* has done a proper end-to-end test of a nuclear tipped ICBM. (Probably not.) If nuclear war ever broke out, and it turns out that design flaws in the missiles on all the different sides meant they all failed to work, then it would be hilarious. Also, somewhat of a relief.

    2. ecofeco Silver badge

      Re: All those nukes...

      The old ICBMs have almost all been replaced by almost everyone and even India now has a space program and Pakistan has nukes!

      Pakistan!

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Mushroom

    I don't understand it

    Why is it always near midnight? Given that there are 1440 minutes in a 24 'day', this now means we are 99.79166666666666666666% (chance) near the end of the world? What gives?

    1. Simon Jones [MSDL]

      Re: I don't understand it

      Look it up on Wikipedia for an explanation of how it works.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doomsday_Clock

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: I don't understand it

        > Look it up on Wikipedia

        No, thank you.

    2. Martin Gregorie

      Re: I don't understand it

      Why is it always near midnight? ...in this case because, though things may not get nasty for some time, we're very close to the point where the our fate becomes inevitable no matter what we do in the future.

      We're probably already past the sustainable human population, but is anybody taking notice apart from, amazingly, the Pope? And, even he's not about to admit that two kids would be a lot better than three or to promote contraceptives.

      I still don't see any serious attempt to de-carbonise energy production outside of China, and even there they're only doing it because their hand has been forced by a country-wide smog problem that rivals Victorian London. Carbon sequestration is a bad joke due to its appalling overall energy efficiency and a severe lack of very long term guaranteed non-leaking storage. No serious attempts at producing enough low or zero carbon energy, such as desert-based solar-electric or thorium nukes, to replace our current sources are evident, which means they're 20-30 years away at best.

      1. Kiwi

        Re: I don't understand it

        Carbon sequestration is a bad joke due to its appalling overall energy efficiency and a severe lack of very long term guaranteed non-leaking storage.

        This should make you feel a bit happier. Carbon is quite safe to handle and doesn't need any special storage. You can touch it and eat it if you want with no harm (unless you eat too much). If you want to put it somewhere try in your garden, you might get some interesting results with plant growth that way :)

        No serious attempts at producing enough low or zero carbon energy, such as desert-based solar-electric or thorium nukes, to replace our current sources are evident

        I love the idea of renewables and nukes, but I think desert solar could be a serious environmental disaster for the area - blocking natural sunlight from large parts of that eco system (yes, even deserts have life!) can't exactly be good for it. Nukes will be much better.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I don't understand it

      Why is it always near midnight?

      Because "3 minutes to tea-time" doesn't sound very scary.

      1. Mark 85

        Re: I don't understand it

        That would depend on who you're having "tea" with..

    4. DropBear

      Re: I don't understand it

      Bit of a wind-up indeed - considering I don't ever remember having seen it more that five minutes "away from midnight", I find it difficult to not just bin it straight with the boy who cried "wolf"; much like a terrorist alert that never goes below orange, it just ends up failing to impress anyone...

      1. Uffish

        Re: I don't remember having seen it

        I went through a red light once, in front of a police car. My explanation that I didn't remember having seen the orange light didn't do me much good.

        1. Solmyr ibn Wali Barad

          @Uffish

          "I went through a red light once, in front of a police car. My explanation that I didn't remember having seen the orange light didn't do me much good."

          Careful there. If you're trying to assert a Doppler effect, you may get a hefty fine for speeding.

    5. Tom 13

      Re: I don't understand it

      Because it's always been a hoax propagated by the commies.

      And yes, it was also one of the first "all the PhD's agree" attempts to shut down criticism of a political agenda not grounded in science.

  3. This post has been deleted by its author

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Mushroom

      Re: Supervolcano and/or bolide impact.

      Biggest, though not most probable. :/

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Supervolcano and/or bolide impact.

      3 - Letting the green movement near the levers of power.

    3. Tom 13

      Re: Supervolcano and/or bolide impact.

      Don't forget the close (in galactic terms) Quasar.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Meanwhile the US Politicians

    are voting on the reality of Climate Change.

    Vote no and it becomes offical US Policy that Climate Change does not exist.

    Perhaps it might be worth sending all those Congress Critters and Senators to places where Climate change is real.

    Next they will be voting to make creationism the law in all 50 states and Darwin is branded a blasphemer.

    Oh wait...

    1. JDX Gold badge

      Re: to places where Climate change is real.

      So global climate change is only happening in some places, that is to say it's not global?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: to places where Climate change is real.

        Those who Inhabit in the DC Political Ghetto don't know the real world.

        Their chauffeur driven limo's with A/C are hardly the best places from which to observe it.

        As for those who downvoted the original post I can only hope that your home gets flooded out the next time there is a deluge.

        1. Fading
          Mushroom

          Re: to places where Climate change is real.

          I didn't down vote but mightily tempted now - repeat after me weather does not equal climate. Also flooding is a civil engineering problem (well except during Noah's time) there used be a time when humans would find solutions to problems not run around in fear.....

          1. Sorry that handle is already taken. Silver badge

            Re: to places where Climate change is real.

            there used be a time when humans would find solutions to problems not run around in fear

            Don't you mean "there used be a time when humans would find solutions to problems not pretend they aren't problems"?

            1. kiwimuso
              Unhappy

              Re: to places where Climate change is real.

              @ Sorry that handle is already taken.

              I think what he meant to say, was that, in the past, they didn't have people who were supposedly intelligent beings, running around over-analysing anything that moved, then claiming that disaster was imminent.

              They waited until the problem actually started to manifest itself, i.e. their prime waterfront property got inundated with the rising tide (possibly) so they moved inland a bit further.

              Of course, also back then, then was no government to whom they could turn and claim that 'they ought to do something about it", like tax someone else to pay for their stupidity/cupidity/arrogance/etc to actually build an expensive house in an area which just might be affected by water/erosion/etc.

              Or not actually building on a cliff-top because of the views and then complain when an earthquake drops several megatons of rock-face from their chosen building site.

              Of course, that didn't prevent the soothsayers and other (sometimes religious) doom merchants from predicting the worst, especially if the stars were not in alignment or something.

              I was going to add the Joke Alert icon, but I'm not entirely sure whether I am joking or not!!!

    2. Dodgy Geezer Silver badge

      Re: Meanwhile the US Politicians

      ...Perhaps it might be worth sending all those Congress Critters and Senators to places where Climate change is real..

      That would be La-La Unicorn land. Where most of the world's politicians (and AC's) are already...

    3. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

      Re: Meanwhile the US Politicians

      "Perhaps it might be worth sending all those Congress Critters and Senators to places where Climate change is real."

      Surely their own backyard, the USA SE coastal regions where the salt water mango swamps are ought to be showing some signs of change?

      Obviously, the solution is to damn all the rivers and stop that water ever reaching the sea. When the bath is full, you turn off the taps. A bit like the mighty Colorado.

    4. fpx

      The Missing Link

      The article makes a big deal about climate change but does not say why.

      Climate change has the potential to upset agriculture and water management. When enough existing farmland turns to dust and entire countries run out of water, then billions of starving people will look to get their food elsewhere, by all means necessary. When rivers such as the Rio Grande, Nile or Euphrates are pumped dry, the countries downstream will get cranky.

      There may enough food and water to go around, globally speaking, but it's not distributed equally, and rearranging distribution has the potential to upset existing power structures. What do you think would happen if the US midwest runs dry and there's no trillions of dollars of deficit spending left for food imports? There's wars already being fought for cheap oil. Future wars will be fought for water.

      This may happen regardless of whether climate change is entirely human made, partially human-influenced, natural, or god's will.

  5. Paul Kinsler

    Re: detonation of many tens of thousands of nuclear warheads

    while we're on the on the subject, this in an interesting read:

    "Environmental consequences of nuclear war", Physics Today, December 2008 (& note the updated predictions/knowledge of enviro impact therein)

    http://climate.envsci.rutgers.edu/pdf/ToonRobockTurcoPhysicsToday.pdf

    http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/magazine/physicstoday

    1. Tom 13

      Re: while we're on the on the subject

      I think you have a typo in that post. It should be Psychics Today.

  6. Pax681

    Ahh the obligatory

    IronMaiden linkage

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sXPmz9b4lM

    1. Iain
      Mushroom

      Re: Ahh the obligatory

      As soon as I see a story about the Doomsday Clock, the jukebox in my head involuntarily cues up '2 Minutes to Midnight'

      Then I checked to see when it came out, over 30 years ago in August '84. Feeling old now.

      In the style of XKCD:

      By this September, the song will be closer in time to what it's about (when the Doomsday Clock was at 2 Minutes to Midnight in September 1953) than it is to the present day. Eeep.

      1. Tom 13

        Re: Ahh the obligatory

        I always cue up Sammy Hagar instead:

        It's your one way ticket to midnight

        Call it Heavy Metal

  7. This post has been deleted by its author

  8. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
    Joke

    In situations like this, I find it useful

    to consult this book I have, with some large, friendly letters on the cover.

    1. Steven Raith
      Joke

      Re: In situations like this, I find it useful

      War and peace?

      (upvoted)

    2. N2

      Re: In situations like this, I find it useful

      'Protect & Survive' ?

      1. Sir Runcible Spoon
        Mushroom

        Re: In situations like this, I find it useful

        'Idiot's guide to inter-continental thermo-nuclear ballistic missile maintenance and upgrades" ?

        1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

          Re: In situations like this, I find it useful

          Zen and the art of '...inter-continental thermo-nuclear ballistic missile maintenance and upgrades"

          FTFY

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: In situations like this, I find it useful

        I have the unsettling music that played at the end of the films as a ringtone. When the Mrs calls me. People of a certain age give me very strange looks. Amazing how films that were never shown are still remebered by even normal, non geeky citizenry. As one who was a kid in the early 80's, when we literally didn't know if we'd be deep fried by an ss20 when we went to bed each night, I laugh at their 3 minutes to midnight. Attention seekers.

    3. admiraljkb
      Joke

      Re: In situations like this, I find it useful

      hehe - looks like the letters make out to be - Don't Panic - :)

    4. ravenviz Silver badge
      Devil

      Re: In situations like this, I find it useful

      Spot Goes to the Fallout Shelter?

    5. John G Imrie

      Re: In situations like this, I find it useful

      Post Nuclear Apocalypses for Dummies

    6. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: In situations like this, I find it useful

      As a reminder of how quickly the surface veneer of civilization can wear off, I suggest Lord of the Flies.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: In situations like this, I find it useful

        > Lord of the Flies.

        As a kid I never realised what an excellent title that would make for a gay porn film.

    7. grumpyoldeyore

      Re: In situations like this, I find it useful

      Haynes manual for the Avro Vulcan?

  9. Ben Liddicott

    Look at meeeeeeee!!!!!!

    The doomsday clock is just grandstanding scientists annoyed that expertise in quantum physics and mathematics oddly don't translate automatically into hot chicks and political power.

    1. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

      Re: Look at meeeeeeee!!!!!!

      How do you know? do you have some inside information on the subject?

      The last time I went to a Physics Lab there were a good few babes in white coats working there.(I was fixing an errant Computer)

    2. Kane
      Boffin

      Re: Look at meeeeeeee!!!!!!@ Ben Liddicott

      Obligatory Douglas Adams quote methinks:

      "Many respectable physicists said that they weren't going to stand for this -- partly because it was a debasement of science, but mostly because they didn't get invited to those sort of parties."

  10. Little Mouse
    Mushroom

    Too tempting

    If it was up to me I'd set the clock to one-minute-past just to see what happens...

    1. Tom 13

      Re: Too tempting

      That would give up the jig. At one minute past, since Earth is still here, it would obviously not be one minute past, and be 23:59 until.

    2. CaveatVenditor
      Facepalm

      Re: Too tempting

      I think I'd remove the battery.

  11. Paul Hovnanian Silver badge
    Unhappy

    Midnight?!?!

    I thought it was almost lunchtime!

  12. Florida1920
    Angel

    Make it stop! Make it stop!

    I seriously need a BOFH fix.

  13. Graham Marsden
    Holmes

    That assertion (nor any other) will probably not do much to change the mind of...

    ... Lewis Page.

    FTFY.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    It is surprising if the Cuban Missile Crisis didn't rate as the closest to midnight setting.

    1. hplasm
      Coat

      It's obvious-

      The clock has advanced due to the threat of Page 3 being removed...

      1. PNGuinn
        Coat

        Re: It's obvious-

        Lewis Page 3?

    2. Charles 9

      The Cuban Missile Crisis happened too quickly for the clock to be reset. It was basically over in a matter of days, and the rate of the clock's change spans years per shift.

      The closest the clock's been is two 'til. That was in 1953 when both the US and USSR tested H-bombs.

    3. Tom 13

      Not if you know anything about the political leanings of the group. In their estimation the Cubans were the good guys. Sort of like The Big 0 is doing right now.

  15. Bawsnia2

    Supervolcano and/or bolide impact.

    I've got a £10 on padydpower.com that the end of world will be caused by an NSA released malware that accidentally infects and renders useless all internet core routers. They gave me 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000\1 :)

    1. John G Imrie

      Re: Supervolcano and/or bolide impact.

      You got those odds on Skynet? Don't they have the Terminator movies in Ireland?

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Supervolcano and/or bolide impact.

      How are you planning to collect it when their database can't be accessed?

    3. PNGuinn
      Go

      Re padydpower

      Sooo ... all you now need to do is crack the relelvant NSA servers, plant the appropriate malware, wait for the end of the world, (including NSA) and go to the bookie to collect ...

      PROFIT!!!!

      OH, wait ...

      BTW, padydpower??? are they Welsh?

  16. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    charlatans

    The Doomsday Clock is maintained by the members of the Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, who are in turn advised by the Governing Board and the Board of Sponsors, including 18 Nobel Laureates.

    Nobel prizes? For what? Head pointyness? Pffff. Bunch of chancers.

    I like to get my climate change science from a trustworthy source such as the Register or Rush Limbaugh.

  17. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
    Facepalm

    Yeah, no, fuck this shit!

    While it is true that the US and Russia are seeking to modernise their atomic armouries, this is mainly because the existing weapons are mostly very old.

    Old my arse. I don't know how retarded one get get in financing the MIC in useless plutonium production but

    .... a trillion dollar "revamp" bill (lower end of the scale, this is the MIC of course). And remember, this is money we DON'T have, there already is a hole of 120 trillion+ in the taxpayer's pocket. Strenously denied by progressives. And conservative hawks if it suits them.

    .... signed by the Obamacare president who vaguely promised to abolish nukes

    .... and which includes reneval of aircraft-delivered weapons that the Air Force doesn't even want in the first place

    .... and all meant to equip a super-expensive "triad" of land/air/submarine delivered vehicles, something that makes only sense when seen as a cold-war leftover of inter-service rivalries

    .... plus the destabilization of the whole MAD system by "missile shields" of dubious value but which may get dangerously better leading to launch on warning, doomsday machines and other Good Ideas of Lost Civilization of the Galaxy.

    leads to the conclusion that the taxpayer may well end up getting a BBQ of epic proportions that will be decidedly bigger than promised. At best he will get radioactive pollution (hey, how is the State of Washington doing with its underground cleanup at Hanford? Salmon already alight in the Columbia River?), maybe a stray nuke pop and definetely a trillion dollar less healthcare and public skools.

    Realistically it's plain that the risk of global thermonuclear war is nothing like as severe right now as it was during various periods of the Cold War.

    Famous last words of people who are very young or otherwise differently abled. The fun with political situations is that new stuff pops up the next minute. Remember The Caliphate? Yeah, that kind of "new stuff".

    1. Message From A Self-Destructing Turnip

      Re: Yeah, no, fuck this shit!

      Have you been out drinking with amanfromMars?

    2. Mark 85

      Re: Yeah, no, fuck this shit!

      I go along with this. The Chinese, the NORKs, have nukes and new delivery systems. The Russians and others (not just the US) are upgrading and freshening the arsenal. A few nuke powers are having their governments taken over by Caliphate leaning bunch.

  18. VultureTX

    Climate Change & Humanity not Doomsday

    FYI Humanity can lose 97% of the population if it does so selectively and still maintain a civilization that will recover. Or 80-90% if the losses are entirely random. With that massive decrease in population the impact on the biosphere is then negligible and expected to be a millennia long remediation and readjustment.

    Why does this matter to "Concerned Scientists"? Well it turns out the West is most unaffected by climate change according to a recent report (and repeated debate), as in third world and other mono power blocks can't adapt to climate change like the Western World can. So yes it then becomes a war game scenario where it you can't stop your opponent, accelerate the climate issues, and your side wins in the long run assuming your infrastructure is flexible and you don't mind the loss of some surface resources.

    /war.. never changes

    1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
      Thumb Down

      Re: Climate Change & Humanity not Doomsday

      and still maintain a civilization that will recover

      This has been tested by VultureTX!

      Here's one for you, Einstein: Energy sources. Absence Of.

      1. VultureTX

        Re: Climate Change & Humanity not Doomsday

        "Here's one for you, Einstein: Energy sources. Absence Of."

        Ask the pentagon, this is why they included Climate Change in their defense planning and definitions for strategic resources.

        Personally I figure we will have deployed enough renewable energy sources to support 3% of the world's population.

    2. ecofeco Silver badge

      Re: Climate Change & Humanity not Doomsday

      "FYI Humanity can lose 97% of the population if it does so selectively..."

      Because the human race is well known for its finesse and discretion, right?

      *snerk*

      ...and THAT'S the real problem.

  19. JustNiz

    Stupid clock

    In its nearly 70 year existence, it has NEVER been set any earlier than 23:43, and its usual state over that whole time is within 10 minutes to midnight. Given a clock displays 12 hours, and that we're even still here, it is VERY clear that the Doomsday Clock massively and systematically over-exaggerates the actual risk of the threats it supposedly quantifies.

    1. Mark 85

      Re: Stupid clock

      Gee... do you think so? It's fear-mongering at it's worst in that it's supposedly run by reputable scientists. While all is not well in the world, and for most of the clock's existence also, there's segments of the population that will take it heart and panic.

    2. ecofeco Silver badge

      Re: Stupid clock

      You really have no grasp of history, do you? There were and still are, enough nukes to kill everything on the planet several THOUSAND times over and we really were very close for 50 of those last 70 years.

      ...and still are for that matter.

      1. Vladimir Plouzhnikov

        Re: Stupid clock

        enough nukes to kill everything on the planet several THOUSAND times over

        Not even once.

        Yes, plenty to kill most major cities but not nowhere near enough for complete sterilisation;

        we really were very close for 50 of those last 70 years.

        ...and still are for that matter.

        And for the rest of the useful life of mankind we'll always be. Because we will always have to work with ever more powerful and dense energy sources and there will always be a possibility of some major screw up (war or accident - doesn't matter). The ONLY insurance is for the humans to spread about widely enough, so that a disaster in one place could not kill us all (i.e. we need to boldly go ... blablabla ... the final frontier).

        Therefore, this "clock" is a mind-numbingly irrelevant fear-mongering publicity vehicle which gives precisely zero of useful information and tries to push the public to think in the wrong direction.

      2. Mark 85

        Re: Stupid clock

        Actually, if you had went up the page a few posts, I'm well aware of who has nukes, who's getting nukes, and who wants them and for what purpose. As for history...I lived in my share of it.. the Korean War (too young to remember much except my uncle went there) and then till now. Also raised not one mile from a very large SAC and interceptor base. History... do tell me about it. About diving under the desks at school. Remember "duck and cover"?

        But it's still fear-mongering.

  20. Infernoz Bronze badge
    Facepalm

    If this wasn't a farce before, it is now

    The degree of predicted Climate change is frankly dubious, and even if it does happen, it is not anything like as harmful as nuclear weapon strikes and can be adapted to using some ideas suggested in the book "Abundance" and other sources.

    I think that it very unlikely that anyone would be so stupid as to use nuclear weapons now, given all the observed effects of Chernoble and Fukashima; fallout can travel huge distances and will likely fall on the attackers home too!

    In my opinion these scientists are calling false Wolf, so are no worth paying any more attention to.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: If this wasn't a farce before, it is now

      The troublesome scenario has always been the unannounced delivery of a nuclear bomb on a boat or truck. Both India and Pakistan have the arsenal capability in their own MAD standoff.

      You only need the wrong people taking power in a nuclear capable country. They will have the necessary levers to coerce/persuade the technical/scientific communities to cooperate. It doesn't do to count on people not wanting the destruction and pollution that would follow. Religious types in many countries take the Bible literally - believing that the Rapture will follow Armageddon and they will go to heaven as the chosen ones.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: If this wasn't a farce before, it is now

        > You only need the wrong people taking power in a nuclear capable country.

        The wrong people have been taking power since 1945.

        1. ecofeco Silver badge

          Re: If this wasn't a farce before, it is now

          "The wrong people have been taking power since 1945."

          The choice was the lessor of 2 evils. It always is. No one in their right mind would say Hitler was the better choice.

    2. Tom 13

      Re: If this wasn't a farce before, it is now

      Climate change, yeah that's a money grabbing farce.

      Atomic clock "scientists" cry wolf? Absolutely. They've were a Soviet front group when founded and never left their roots even if the old union is gone.

      Likelihood of nuclear war? This one I'd actually rate higher than it has been in my lifetime and I'm getting to be an old fart. But not for the reasons the idiots running the clock focus on. Right now the Iranians are about a year from having nukes. They really are fanatical religious nutters who aren't afraid to use them after they've got them and they really are hell bent on wiping Israel of the map. The Israelis' of course have nukes. So the region is likely to explode when they do. Expect spill over into India-Pakistan who probably also both have nukes even if one of them denies it. At that point the whole thing spins out of control.

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Comparing wide scale nuclear war to climate change is ridiculous

    One will kill millions due to the direct effects of the blast, and billions in the next few years from starvation due to the loss of infrastructure (the deaths from increased cancer rates 10 or 20 years on are a drop in a bucket that won't even matter, as would be the deaths from "nuclear winter" if such a thing actually occurred)

    The other will, a century so or now, probably kill millions over the following the centuries, based on some hand waving arguments that a warmer Earth will change climactic patterns causing droughts, floods, and wars for resources.

    Even if you fully accept the predictions of AGW, it is not possible to predict what parts of the world that are fertile now will become less fertile, or what parts of the world that are less fertile now will become moreso (but we never hear about any positive impacts, when it is clear there would be some) People have in the past, are currently, and always will fight wars, it is in our nature. Assigning deaths from wars to global warming is like assigning women dying from heart attacks to George Clooney being off the market. There probably are some, but how many is a guessing game.

    The human race as we know it can easily survive on a much warmer Earth. There would be some adjustment, and some of that adjustment would cause people to die, but it would be a very minor inconvenience on the level of a piece of gum sticking to your shoe compared to wide scale nuclear war. These "concerned scientists" can stuff it!

    1. ecofeco Silver badge

      Re: Comparing wide scale nuclear war to climate change is ridiculous

      Yeah... no.

      An ELE is an ELE no matter how it's accomplished.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Comparing wide scale nuclear war to climate change is ridiculous

        The idea that climate change will extinguish life on Earth is without any scientific basis whatsoever. That takes propaganda to new untapped levels. Not even any point in trying to reason with someone so stupid as to believe that.

  22. Boris the Cockroach Silver badge
    Mushroom

    Been here before

    nothing to see

    Working at a military base directly targeted by a 1meg russian nuke all the way though the cold war gives you a different perspective on the whole doomsday clock thing

    Best solution we came up with was to lie on the concrete carpark outside the main lab in various obscene positions and wait to have our shadows burned into it.

    Well , would give the tourist guides something to gloss over in 1000 yrs time

    <guide> ah yes the famous fertility dance these primitives were doing just before they were vapourised...

    <kiddie> why does this one look like his arm is stuck up this one's arse?

  23. ecofeco Silver badge

    7 billion people

    7 billion people is reason enough, since 6 billion of them are neurotic at best and quite insane the rest of the time.

    1. Vladimir Plouzhnikov

      Re: 7 billion people

      Are you one of those "humanity is the cancer of Gaia" type of people? You know - "We need to cull ourselves so that the cute pandas survive - it's for the greater good", ah?

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Dark matter asteroids?

    http://www.space.com/25657-dark-matter-asteroid-impacts-earth-theory.html

    2004 BL86 might have a dark matter companion on a parallel course so we could well get clobbered around Monday 25 January at 6.39 pm if my calculations are correct.

    1. Vladimir Plouzhnikov

      Re: Dark matter asteroids?

      Don't be a pussy - dark matter is made of wimps.

      1. Kepler
        Joke

        Re: Dark matter asteroids?

        "Don't be a pussy - dark matter is made of wimps."

        At last, a joke I got! My compliments, Vladimir Plouzhnikov.

        (No idea what book or letters that fellow way above — Michael H.F. Wilkinson — had in mind when he wrote of his book "with some large, friendly letters on the cover". The best I could come up with was the Hebrew letters corresponding to T, N and K (for the TaNaKh), but I'm sure that's not it, and I'm missing something obvious.)

        And yet you adopt such a macho attitude!

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Dark matter asteroids?

          "No idea what book or letters that fellow way above — Michael H.F. Wilkinson — had in mind when he wrote of his book "with some large, friendly letters on the cover"."

          "The Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy" by Douglas Adams is essential reading to understand many of its references in El Reg and the comments.

          The title refers to an iPad style device that acts as a quick reference guide book to all known places and peoples in the Universe. The entry for Earth is "Mostly harmless".

          The answer to your puzzlement is - the front of the device has "Do Not Panic" in large letters. Useful advice for any dangerous situation you encounter in your travels.

          Other references that you will see on El Reg from the trilogy of at least four books.are:

          "Goodbye and thanks for all the fish"

          Glasses that go completely dark when there is danger.

          The sound of a whale hitting a planet's surface at high speed.

          The Infinite Improbability Drive.

          Norwegian fjords

          Intelligent mice.

          Towels

          Lemon-soaked paper napkins

          " and me with this terrible pain in all the diodes down my left side"

          "Brain the size of a planet"

          "Share and enjoy"

          ..but above all

          "The meaning of life, the Universe, and everything is.... 42"

          1. MrZoolook
            Facepalm

            Re: Dark matter asteroids?

            "The Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy ... refers to an iPad style device"

            I'd go with "iPad style devices copied their basic design from The Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy."

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: Dark matter asteroids?

              "I'd go with "iPad style devices copied their basic design from The Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy.""

              I should have inserted a footnote pointing out that H2G2 made its first appearance in 1978.

  25. Roj Blake Silver badge

    Time Zone

    I hope that the clock isn't based on EST, otherwise those of us in Europe are already dead.

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