Scientists advance doomsday clock closer to midnight

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - The Doomsday Clock moved forward Thursday as scientists warned humanity is inching closer to an apocalypse prompted by the international orders' failure to reign in pressing threats and President Donald Trump's words and actions.

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists announced they have moved the clock ahead 30 seconds, bringing the symbolic time piece closer to midnight than it has been at any point since 1953.

"Make no mistake, this has been a difficult year,” executive director Rachel Bronson told a news conference while explaining the bulletin's decision.

"Over the course of 2016 the global security landscape darkened as the international community failed to come to grips with humanity's most pressing existential threats: nuclear weapons and climate change," she said.

In a lengthy 18-page explanation of its decision, the bulletin criticized Trump's campaign rhetoric on nuclear proliferation and denial of climate change.

It further stated that "Even though he has just now taken office, the president’s intemperate statements, lack of openness to expert advice, and questionable cabinet nominations have already made a bad international security situation worse".

In an op-ed for the New York Times, theoretical physicist Lawrence M. Krauss and retired Adm. David Titley, writing on behalf of the organization, said the decision to advance the clock was based in part on Trump's words is unprecedented.

"Never before has the Bulletin decided to advance the clock largely because of the statements of a single person. But when that person is the new president of the United States, his words matter," they wrote.

Last year, the bulletin opted not to change the clock's time from three minutes to midnight.

The Doomsday Clock was created in 1947 by a group of scientists that worked on the Manhattan Project, the American-led clandestine effort to build the world's first nuclear weapons.