世界終末時計は、2007年1月に”2分すすみ、５分前”で止まった

　世界終末時計が、2002年に”７分前だった。”　それが、今回2分進み、5分前で止まった

-----image（ホームページのキャプチャー画像） & text : The Bulletin Online - Global Security News & Analysis

" IT IS 5MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT
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The threat of a sedond nuclear age and the expected consequences of climate change push the Doomsday Clock closer to midnight.

Overview
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ Doomsday Clock conveys how close humanity is to catastrophic destruction--the figurative midnight--and monitors the means humankind could use to obliterate itself. First and foremost, these include nuclear weapons, but they also encompass climate-changing technologies and new developments in the life sciences and nanotechnology that could inflict irrevocable harm. "

コメント
　今回の世界終末時計が2分間進んだのには、核の問題では、北朝鮮、イランなどの核保持への参入への動きへの懸念、加えて環境では、

" Environmental

Fossil-fuel technologies such as coal-burning plants powered the industrial revolution, bringing unparalleled economic prosperity to many parts of the world. In the 1950s, however, scientists began measuring year-to-year changes in the carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere that they could relate to fossil fuel combustion, and they began to develop the implications for Earth’s temperature and for climate change.

Fifty years later, leading scientists agree that carbon-burning technologies continue to make Earth warmer at an unprecedented rate. They warn that the consequences could drastically alter both the planet and human life. Already, ice packs in Greenland are rapidly disappearing, which, in turn, threatens the existence of hundreds of species such as polar bears and the traditions of whole societies such as the Inuit. The future looks even bleaker, as scientists continue to observe cascading effects on Earth’s complex ecosystems. "

　地球温暖化によるさまざまな影響が、ティッピングポイントを越えて懸念と恐れから、現実の”変動”にむけて動き出していると15人の科学者が判断した結果のようだ。以前までの終末時計は、核を中心に動いていたが、核にカーボンバーニングを限界を越えて続けることにより環境を重視した判断となってきていることが特徴的だ。

参考
・Doomsday Clock　世界終末時計（Wikipedia）

　以前の終末時計のイラスト(Doomsday-clock)から、より簡略化された時計のデザインとなった。

プレスリリース / The Bulletin Online,15 January 2007
・Clock Moves Forward Two Minutes(17 January 2007)

" Doomsday Clock : On January 17 at 14:30GMT(9:30ET) the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists will launch a new web site and make a major announcement "

参考資料
・The Bulletin Online　Volume 63, Number 1 / January-February 2007

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