newjerseynewsroom.com

BY ADELE SAMMARCO

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

The apocalypse is coming and it’s the end of the world as we know it.

That famous R.E.M. song may ring true to the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists (BAS) who announced Tuesday at a press conference in Washington, D.C. that they are moving the hand of the Doomsday Clock to five minutes before midnight.

In 2010, scientists moved the clock backwards to six minutes before midnight, citing the world had grown a bit safer and the risks of nuclear proliferation were quite lower than expected.

However, it now appears with global warming and other environmental as well as nuclear issues mounting, researchers have decided to move the hand forward, the first time since 2007.

The scientists had hoped that world leaders would address particular global threats, but say they have been slow to react.

In a statement released by the group, the scientists announced, “The global community may be near a point of no return in efforts to prevent catastrophe from changes in Earth's atmosphere. The International Energy Agency projects that, unless societies begin building alternatives to carbon-emitting energy technologies over the next five years, the world is doomed to a warmer climate, harsher weather, droughts, famine, water scarcity, rising sea levels, loss of island nations, and increasing ocean acidification."

For decades, a nuclear holocaust has been widely perceived as the greatest threat to all humanity, which is why the Doomsday Clock has served as a perilous and prophetic symbol of massive global demise.

According to Time Magazine’s Ecocentric blog, the Doomsday Clock originated back in 1947 and uses a film noir-like imagery of an apocalypse, with the clock striking midnight, to dramatize the risks of nuclear weapons and other catastrophic threats to mankind.

BAS believes world leaders have failed significantly to reduce atomic weapons worldwide and say there are a number of reasons for their decision to turn back time.

A significant contributing factor, scientists say, was the narrowly averted nuclear disaster at the Fukushima plant in Japan last year, which was caused by a massive earthquake and tsunami.

North Korea, another factor scientists cite, is currently going through a potentially destabilizing leadership transition with the death of its long-time leader, Kim Jong Il, last month. Other countries such as Turkey, Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates have also expressed growing interest in nuclear weaponry which they say is another worry.