Nuclear, climate perils push Doomsday Clock ahead

[Kadie]

Nuclear, climate perils push Doomsday Clock ahead
By Will Dunham
10 minutes ago


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The scientists who mind the Doomsday Clock moved it two minutes closer to midnight on Wednesday -- symbolizing the annihilation of civilization and adding the perils of global warming for the first time.

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which created the Doomsday Clock in 1947 to warn the world of the dangers of nuclear weapons, advanced the clock to five minutes until midnight. It was the first adjustment of the clock since 2002.

"We stand at the brink of a second nuclear age," the bulletin's board of directors said in a statement.

They pointed to North Korea's first nuclear test, Iran's nuclear ambitions, U.S. flirtation with "bunker buster" nuclear bombs, the continued presence of 26,000 American and Russian nuclear weapons and inadequate security for nuclear materials.

But the scientists also said destruction of human habitats wreaked by climate change brought on by human activities is a growing danger.

"Global warming poses a dire threat to human civilization that is second only to nuclear weapons," they said.

more...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070117/sc_nm/doomsday_clock_dc_4



http://news.yahoo.com/photo/070117/photos_sc/2007_01_17t125527_450x352_us_doomsday_clock

[WHEN CRABS ROAR]

1. Solution for global warming, nuclear winter.

[TZ]

2. environmental problems

Back in the late 80's and early 90's there was a near legendary lecture given in the Department of Zoology at the University of Maryland by the converation biology professor (given every semester he taught) about how we were at that point most likely 50 years from total environmental collapse with scary details. 15 yrs later I think his timeline is on track...