February 1, 2017 9:00am by David Farrar

Demented Doomsdayers

It’s now two-and-a-half minutes to “midnight”, according to the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, which warned Thursday (Friday NZ time) that the end of humanity may be nigh.

The group behind the famed Doomsday Clock announced at a news conference that it was adjusting the countdown to the End of it All by moving the hands 30 seconds closer to midnight – the closest the clock has been to Doomsday since 1953, after the United States tested its first thermonuclear device, followed months later by the Soviet Union’s hydrogen bomb test.

In announcing that the Doomsday Clock was moving 30 seconds closer to the end of humanity, the group noted that in 2016, “the global security landscape darkened as the international community failed to come effectively to grips with humanity’s most pressing existential threats, nuclear weapons and climate change.”

From the 1950s to 1980s the Doomsday Clock was a useful and respected institution. The world did live in fear of global annihilation by way of nuclear war between the super powers.

The fall of the USSR saw this threat recede massively. So at some stage those behind it seemed desperate to remain relevant so they added on climate change as a criteria.

So now we have the ridiculous situation where they claim humanity is closer to global annihiliation today than anytime since 1953.

Their doomsaying gets worse every year so I imagine in a few years they will announce we are 0.001 second off midnight!