WASHINGTON — The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists says Earth is now closer to human-caused doomsday than it has been in more than 30 years because of climate change and nuclear weaponry. Other experts say that’s way too gloomy.
The advocacy group founded by the creators of the atomic bomb moved their famed “Doomsday Clock” ahead two minutes Thursday. It said the world is now three minutes from a catastrophic midnight, instead of five minutes.
“This is about doomsday; this is about the end of civilization as we know it,” said bulletin executive director Kennette Benedict at a news conference in Washington.
Other scientists aren’t quite so pessimistic. Michael Oppenheimer, a professor of both geosciences and international affairs at Princeton University, said in an e-mail, “I suspect that humans will ‘muddle through’ the climate situation much as we have muddled through the nuclear weapons situation.”
