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Will the Doomsday Clock advance toward midnight at the end of this year?

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is an eminent organization born out of the Manhattan project at the dawn of the age of atomic weapons.

It is comprised of scientists and policy makers with a mission of tracking catastrophic threats to humanity including nuclear war, global climate change, and others, and educating the public about these threats.

Probably the most well-known program of the Bulletin is the Doomsday Clock, which provides a barometer of the overall level of catastrophic risk we face, in the form of "minutes to midnight" and based on a number of considerations including nuclear arsenals, nuclear material security, CO2 and temperature rise, etc.

At the beginning of 2016, the decision was made to keep the clock at three minutes to midnight, as close to midnight as any time since 1953 when it was set at two minutes to midnight. At the beginning of 2017, the Bulletin will again decide how to set the clock, based on its assessment of global security.

Will the Bulletin advance the clock to two or fewer minutes to midnight?

Categories: Environment – Climate, Physical Sciences – Nuclear Physics

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