Big day today folks. The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists will move the hands on their famous “doomsday clock”.
Here’s my guess. Climate scientist Steven Schneider will be speaking. We know what he is all about. The Copenhagen Climate Conference failed in December and there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth. My prediction is that these alarmists will move the clock closer to midnight, citing the Copenhagen “failure” as pushing mankind closer to the brink of “climate disaster” or some such phrase.
Plus, we’ll get to watch them turn the hands of the clock live via webfeed. Such stunning visuals. Yawn. I’ll save you the suspense. In 2007 it was set to five minutes to midnight, to reflect the failure to solve problems posed by nuclear weapons. Today I’m guessing they’ll mention Copenhagen’s failure and list climate change as the next global threat and set it to 4 minutes to midnight. Or…maybe 3, if Steven Schneider scares them enough. UPDATE: my guess was wrong: they moved it back to 6 minutes see here
From the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists press release:
Hands of the “Doomsday Clock” to be moved in New York City and seen live on web for first time ever
8 January 2010
… News Advisory for January 14, 2010 …
Factors In Change to Include Nuclear Proliferation, Weapon Stockpile Shifts, and Climate Change; Bulletin of Atomic Scientists Will Open Event to World With Real-Time Streaming Web Broadcast.
NEW YORK CITY///NEWS ADVISORY///January 14, 2010///The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (BAS) will move the minute hand of its famous “Doomsday Clock” at 10 a.m. EST/1500 GMT on January 14, 2010 in New York City. For the first time ever, the event will be opened up to the general public via a live Web feed at http://www.TurnBackTheClock.org.
The last time the Doomsday Clock minute hand moved was in January 2007, when the Clock’s minute hand was pushed forward by two minutes from seven to five minutes before midnight.
The precise time to be shown on the updated Doomsday Clock will not be announced until the live news conference in New York City takes place on January 14, 2010. Factors influencing the latest Doomsday Clock change include international negotiations on nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation, expansion of civilian nuclear power, the possibilities of nuclear terrorism, and climate change.
News event speakers will include:
- Lawrence Krauss, co-chair, BAS Board of Sponsors, foundation professor, School of Earth and Space Exploration and Physics departments, associate director, Beyond Center, co-director, Cosmology Initiative, and director, New Origins Initiative, Arizona State University.
- Stephen Schneider, member, BAS Science and Security Board, professor of environmental biology and global change, Stanford University, a co-director, Center for Environment Science and Policy of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, and senior fellow, Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment.
- Jayantha Dhanapala, member, BAS Board of Sponsors, president, Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, and chair, 1995 UN Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Conference;
- Pervez Hoodbhoy, member, BAS Board of Sponsors, professor of high energy physics, and head, Physics Department, Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan; and
- Kennette Benedict, executive director, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
Founded in 1945 by University of Chicago scientists who had helped develop the first atomic weapons in the Manhattan Project, The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists subsequently created the Doomsday Clock in 1947 as way to convey both the imagery of apocalypse (midnight) and the contemporary idiom of nuclear explosion (countdown to zero). The decision to move the minute hand of the Doomsday Clock is made by the Bulletin’s Board of Directors in consultation with its Board of Sponsors, which includes 19 Nobel Laureates. The Clock has become a universally recognized indicator of the world’s vulnerability to catastrophe from nuclear weapons, climate change, and emerging technologies in the life sciences.
TO PARTICIPATE IN PERSON: Attend the live news event on January 14, 2010 at 10 a.m. EST, at the New York Academy of Sciences Building, at 7 World Trade Center, 250 Greenwich St, 40th floor, New York City. The event will be limited to credentialed members of the news media. For security reasons, all attendees must RSVP in advance by contacting Patrick Mitchell, (703) 276-3266, or pmitchell@hastingsgroup.com.
CAN’T PARTICIPATE IN PERSON?: Reporters outside of New York City who are unable to attend the live news event in person can watch and listen to the news conference via a live Webcast by registering by 945 a.m. EST on January 14, 2010 at http://www.TurnBackTheClock.org/media. A streaming audio replay of the news event will be available on the Web at http://www.thebulletin.org as of 6 p.m. EST/2300 GMT on January 14, 2010.
“And finally,” said Max, quieting the audience down and putting on his solemn face, “finally I believe we have with us here tonight, a party of believers, very devout believers, from the Church of the Second Coming of the Great Prophet Zarquon.” There were about twenty of them, sitting right out on the edge of the floor, ascetically dressed, sipping mineral water nervously and staying apart from the festivities. They blinked resentfully as the spotlight was turned on them. “There they are,” said Max, “sitting there, patiently. He said he’d come again, and he’s kept you waiting a long time, so let’s hope he’s hurrying fellas, because he’s only got eight minutes left!””
tallbloke (03:31:26) :
Stanford sent 65 Sixty Five !! delegates to COP15 […]
Leif might be able to tell us more, his office is just across the road from the Woods Institute building on the Stanford campus.
They didn’t send me 🙁
I love caviar, so should have been qualified.
Cheers! I’ll drink to that!
/Mr Lynn
Doug in Seattle (06:57:12) :
Another example of issue creep.
Issued by creeps?
Leif Svalgaard (06:59:11) :
tallbloke (03:31:26) :
Stanford sent 65 Sixty Five !! delegates to COP15 […]
Leif might be able to tell us more, his office is just across the road from the Woods Institute building on the Stanford campus.
They didn’t send me 🙁
I love caviar, so should have been qualified.
Shame on them Leif. And they didn’t even bring you back a goody bag.
Mind you, the ‘bad apples’ would have turned the caviar sour anyway. 😉
Apparently the clock has moved back to 6 minutes to midnight…although we have to worry about the rapidly melting polar ice caps??
Hehe…
On the live broadcast he said a minute ago: “The doomsday clock is one of the worlds most famous symbols!”
Moved it back 1 minute–maybe they did watch Jokenhagen.
Once it goes past midnight it will be a whole new day. Looking forward to it, I might find my car keys.
These are Atomic Scientists not Climatologists, I have it on high authority (Real Climate) that this makes them unqualified to move the clock based on climate issues.
Michael Mann has his own version of the clock:
http://tallbloke.wordpress.com/files/2010/01/manns-doomsday1.jpg
The dude who spent a lot of time during his 5 minute speech to talk about Climategate was funny. He said over and over again that Climategate has made the AGW-camps arguments even stronger!
From Daniel H links:
Bringing climate change into global governance
http://www.thebulletin.org/web-edition/features/bringing-climate-change-global-governance
a new high in farce?
or a new low in IQ.
everytime I think they reach the peak of stupid…they amaze me with a new effort
I don’t know why the administration doesn’t take advantage of situations like this? I hope for the benefit of all the citizens of the world that there is plenty of money in the stimulus package to totally revamp and technologically update our doomsday clock. As an American, I’m embarrassed that our doomsday clock isn’t at least digital. I’m sure doomsday clocks in Europe and Japan are much more sophisticated and highly advanced! Why shouldn’t we know the EXACT time before doomsday? It’s important, especially for schoolchildren to know if we have 5 seconds or only 4.99987 seconds left! I feel this is an important project for our country. We could even power the new clock with solar or wind energy! Think of how many jobs in China we could create!!
cop15 helped, they moved it back!
Britain on course for coldest January for 37 years
January is on course to be the coldest for 37 years after temperatures in the first week of the month averaged minus 2.1 degrees (28F).
Today I’m guessing they’ll mention Copenhagen’s failure and list climate change as the next global threat and set it to 4 minutes to midnight. Or…maybe 3,
It exact time would of course be relative to the velocity of the observer.
I really don’t see the relationship between time warps/space and climate change. As they can’t develop any arguments that aren’t open to straightforward refutation, they are reduced to red herrings.
I don’t think the MAYAN calendar deals with planetary destruction; but perhaps a spiritual and truthful awakening (which is happening more and more), or it deals with our entry into another part of our galaxy.
Who knows? If the earth’s axis really moves like we’ve never experienced–if this is possible–then we’ll see and have to deal with the consequences of living on a planet in a solar system, in a galaxy, in a universe, in a…
Can someone explain to me why the media keep turning up to, and reporting on, these non-events?
john
” Dodgy Geezer (04:47:08) :
@Bill Tuttle
“Geez, I didn’t know the Giant Clock O’ Doom was still around….”
And there, in a nutshell, you have the reason for this little phobia-fest……”
I was working in the Hanford area as a contract pilot in the 1970’s-early 80’s.
Knew a lot of DOD folks,mainly scientists and engineers.One fellow I knew WW2 vet- spent most of his time in the Navy in the cockpit of an SBD-5 divebomber, busting Japanese Capitol ships.He was on the USS Enterprise in Tokyo bay. He held that
the UOCS is made up of::”Mostly academics who, never have had anyone try to kill them,who think that if America disarms,there will be no more war.-That is why I call it the :Crock of Doom.” What happens when Iran gets the Bomb? Are they “Concerned” enough to move that hand to three minutes? Or is the source of funding
more important?
Who’s the guy sitting next to Krauss?
P Wilson (07:42:08) :
I really don’t see the relationship between time warps/space and climate change.
Don’t you see it? Dig into the links given by David H, above.
“World governance” among these relationships.
I believe the University failed to reset the clock to standard time. Phew! Dodged a bullet there!