Washington, January 25 (RHC)-- The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has advanced the Doomsday Clock 20 seconds closer to midnight.  The clock is a symbolic timekeeper that tracks the likelihood of nuclear war and other existential threats.  It now stands closer to catastrophe than at any time since its creation in 1947. 

Mary Robinson, former Irish president and former U.N. human rights chief, said: “The Doomsday Clock is a globally recognized indicator of the vulnerability of our existence. It’s a striking metaphor for the precarious state of the world, but, most frighteningly, as we have just heard, it’s a metaphor backed by rigorous scientific scrutiny.  This is no mere analogy.  We are now 100 seconds to midnight, and the world needs to wake up.  Our planet faces two simultaneous existential threats: the climate crisis and nuclear weapons.”

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists blasted U.S. President Donald Trump for withdrawing the United States from the Cold War-era Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces agreement and is calling on Washington to renew the New START treaty before it expires in 2021.  New START limits the number of nuclear weapons deployed by the U.S. and Russia.