The Mayans are beginning to look like a race of geniuses. Thousands of years ago they were able to predict the end of the world and now the best brains in the world are catching up. The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists (BAS), which includes Nobel Prize winners as its members have moved their symbolic Doomsday Clock one minute closer to meltdown.

Before Tuesday, the clock had been six minutes to midnight. It now stands at five minutes to midnight.

BAS

Back in 2010, the group moved the Doomsday Clock from five minutes to six minutes due to fresh hopes of nuclear cooperation and the election of President Barack Obama. Those hopes have turned into a damp squid with people disillusioned with their governments, promises of new beginnings and the change mantra that dominated the American presidential election being nothing but a cruel joke.

Co-Chair Lawrence Krauss described the situation as, “Business as usual reigns the norm among world leaders.” 

BAS said reasons for moving the clock closer to Armageddon were nuclear tensions, particularly in the Middle East, and a tendency by governments to deny climate change and the evidence offered by scientists. GOP candidates vying for the American Presidency were even outdoing each other in denying climate change.

The meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan was used to illustrate the dangers of nuclear power. “How can complex systems like nuclear power stations be made less susceptible to accidents and errors in judgement,”  said BAS in a press release.

But it wasn’t all gloom. A dim but distant glimmer of hope was noted by BAS in the vein of the world protests movements such as the Arab spring, the Occupy movement and the protests in Russia. These showed people all over the world were becoming more aware of the power wielded over them and they were seeking a greater say in the world is run.

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