Essay by Eric Worrall
The clock counts down to 2030, when apparently we are all doomed.
Residents divided as Aussie council erects $18,000 clock in countdown to ‘doomsday’ deadline
It counts down the days, hours and minutes until a pivotal moment in our fight against climate change. But not all are enjoying the message.
Joe Attanasio
Senior Reporter
Fri 21 February 2025 at 8:06 am AESTA thought-provoking art installation in a major inner-city public garden has continued to spark mixed reactions with locals seemingly divided by the controversial work.
The $18,000 piece features a countdown clock tracking the days, hours, and minutes until 2030 — a pivotal year for climate action in Australia, marked by key national and international targets.
…
Speaking to Yahoo News Australia, a City spokesman said the price is “a small part of a modest budget” that goes towards “supporting emerging local artists”. In comparison, the Ouroboros work in Canberra — based on the ancient story of a snake eating its own tail— cost a reported $14 million.
…
n Fitzroy, a young woman walking through the park on Thursday appeared to enjoy the clock. “It’s kind of cool … it makes you think,” she told 7News. “The people in this area probably already know what’s going on,” her companion said. “Maybe it could have been put somewhere else, like Brighton.”
…
On the other end of the scale, one local man hit out at what he described as “bulls**t in my face”.
“Truthfully, it’s just crap,” he said. “I’d like to just keep living peacefully and happily and enjoy this park.”
…
Read more: https://au.news.yahoo.com/residents-divided-as-aussie-council-erects-18000-clock-in-countdown-to-doomsday-deadline-220605666.html
Does this art installation motivate you to reduce your personal CO2 emissions?
I’ve got to say the council didn’t receive a lot for the money they paid to the artist.
The plinth was already present – it apparently used to belong to a statue of Queen Victoria which disappeared under mysterious circumstances 120 years ago. The University of Melbourne is nearby, which raises obvious suspicions – I doubt the students of 120 years ago were much different to the students of today.
The doomsday clock appears to be a few pieces of welded steel sheet and cheap square section, an electronic display which looks like it was salvaged from a road work sign, and a $200 solar panel. Other components could include a low cost microcontroller, a display controller and a backup battery inside to keep the numbers ticking.
I’ve made devices with similar components as part of my professional work. The materials required to make something like this can be sourced for a lot less than $18000.
But I guess the issue of receiving value for money is for local government voters to decide.
I’m curious whether the clock thing will run out of electricity in winter, at 37.8º South, Melbourne winters tend to be overcast and dreary. The sun drops low in the sky, and the length of day drops to a minimum of around nine hours.
Those big bright LED signs consume a fair bit of electricity, possibly too much for the attached solar panel, if that is what it is. The “clock” also appears to be overshadowed by trees, though some of the trees in Fitzroy Gardens are deciduous which might help a bit.
If anyone happens to notice the clock running out of juice, or sees someone sneaking in with a battery pack to give it a boost, please send us a photo for our entertainment – though it is possible there is a fossil fuel sourced grid backup power supply built into the plinth, just in case the solar panel doesn’t cover the climate doomsday clock’s energy needs.
Correction (EW): h/t Nick Stokes – the statue is in Fitzroy’s Edinburgh Gardens, not Fitzroy Gardens.
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That investment won’t age well.
Five years from now it will be a monument to foolishness. If they don’t quietly remove it before then.
Other than causing undo fear, dread and anxiety among a certain sect of society, this clock will have about as much prophetic value as the Mayan Calendar…
Though I do suspect that the last living Mayan likely died Dec.21, 2012
.🤗
It won’t even last that long unless they keep up with the petroleum-based paint and maybe cut down some more trees in the process.
Navy blue, solar panel spray paint is only about $5/can.
It’s a digital clock – easy to reset.
Is it based on the Julian Calendar or the Gregorian?
Neither – some weird CO2 one.
Perhaps the Julienne Since we’re all gonna be fried
I doubt that the display will last until 2030, being out in the weather. In any case, what will they do if it does survive and reach zero in 2030? Reset it for another five years?
“Reset it for another five years?”
Exactly.
That’s what Climate Alarmists always do: They make some outrageous claim about CO2 and when it doesn’t come to pass, they reset their doomsday claim farther into the future. It’s Standard Operating Procedure for Climate Alarmists. They continuously recycle all their scary climate change scenarios.
Does that “investment” use electricity that is sourced only from “green, renewable” sources?
If not, shame on its creator and funders!
They should put their money where their mouth is. They should put up at least a few $million (or their salaries) up against real people so real people can make bets against theirs and their stupid clock. I’m sure people would even be willing to give some major odds to the clock deadline advocates, um, idiots.
Naah, as per Paul Ehrlich’ The Population Bomb, I died of famine in the early 1970’s.
I did too.
Why wait – dynamite it now.
Nah, just remove the clock and put a decent statue on top instead…. any suggestions?
A nice bronze of Michael Mann, Naomi Oreskes, Thomas Karl, John Cook, James Hansen et.al. seated as the Last Supper with Saint Al Gore in the center and the Bronzed Doomsday Clock front table center titled?
Failed Prognosticators?
The Last Failure?
They could also erect a wall (like the WWII or Korea or VietNam wall of soldiers who gave their lives) and inscribe ALL the failed Climate Prognostications.
The Climate Crusader “Wall of Shame”
How about Chicken Little. The sky is falling.
It’s in Melbourne, so Karl Marx is the only choice.
Regarding the comment from the girl in the video, that the clock should be located in Brighton. LOL! Brighton if full of virtue signaling, wealthy, Tesla driving lefty Teal & Green voters, who support ‘climate action’ and have no problem in paying huge energy bills to cool and warm their $10M + compounds!
Brighton also has its share of what I refer to as ‘greeny grannies’. Very old women, wearing hemp clothing, riding bicycles (just) with baskets on them, attempting to not be flattened by a bus. Off to the shops negotiating traffic, for their organic produce, and then enjoy a nice cup of ‘responsibly sourced’ coffee.
Do it at 3am along with a whole lot of small diversionary charges watch VicPol run round like headless chickens
Fitzroy hey?
I can just imagine a pair of dull-eyed, scruffy bearded, dope-reeking “climate activists” standing in front of this display with their heads bobbing down & up, mesmerized as each brightly-lit second ticks over.
BoM and /or CSIRO job application forms sticking out of their back pockets.
And pencils tucked firmly up their noses
Proving the ‘land downunder’ is indeed upside down.
It is not going well when climate alarmists apply Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals #5 to themselves.
If I were designing it, I would rig it so that first the seconds, then the minutes and finally the hours would be powered down when the battery started getting low. I would also rig it so that it dimmed the entire display when it got dark outside. (IE, not much power coming from the solar panel.)
I can’t tell if there is a street light close to the boondoggle?
Probably nothing which would make a difference. I can’t remember if Fitzroy Gardens are lighted at night, but it really isn’t the kind of place you should visit after dark. Not these days.
Being Melbourne, it will be interesting to see how it fares, trying to run off solar in winter.
The elite need to funnel money to those whose hearts are in the right place (never mind that they use FF every day!) so that the peasants get used to paying to be told they are destroying the planet.
This art project rates high in cynicism.
Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. Mathew 24:42
While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease. Genesis 8:22
Australians are always good for a laugh. How many shrimps can you put on the barbee before the clock hits zero, mate?
He he – I hope it makes the distance. Might pay it a visit in December 2029.
prawns
Barbie
“Throw another tinnie on the barbie, mate”
LOL from my bottom … More like sign of the failed predictions. I bet the “Doomsday Clock” dies before us boomers blow out our last candles!
Is that in Australian dollars or USD?
Either way, sounds like the Aussies need a big dose of DOGE. To paraphrase Jack Nicholson in Batman, that town needs an enema.
I visited Australia a number of years ago and felt at home. I think I would not feel the same way now.
So long as you avoid the leftist inner-city leftist ghettos, and virtue-seeking teal seats, not much has changed.
Its an infection that needs to be contained.
Melbourne is an ugly place these days.
I’ve got a mate, hard man, does roadside repair. About once a year he fights off hijackers who lure him with a fake roadside assistance call, so he is someone who really knows how to handle himself.
He refuses to set foot in Melbourne, thinks it is too dangerous.
They’d be better off spending the money monitoring China’s invasion rehearsal exercise currently under way.
Who would want to invade Melbourne?
We should just move all the various “Doomsday Clocks” to midnight and see what happens in the morning.
I bet we’ll all still be here.
As a monument to stupidity, it should be called a Dumbsday Clock.
That would appear to need setting at Minutes AFTER Midnight. We’ve already passed peak stupid.
What will the alarmists do come 2030 when the world continues on its normal variable path any they are all gathered round the doomsday clock waiting for its last tick.
I just hope they get AOC and Greta there to stand witness to the last moments of life on Earth. I would even pay to be there to listen to their excuses for getting the timing wrong. Again.
Such a thing has happened many times but they keep on ignoring the facts, and keep on making dumb predictions that do not pan out, that is all they have, and it is laughable.
Work the people into a frenzy and wait for them to eliminate one another
Never mind lads, same time next year, we’ll get it right one day.
As the author states, its the display and the electronics that drives it that consumes power.
The clock itself could run for a long time on just a button battery.
Any competent person would design it so the clock keeps going even if there is not enough energy to drive the display…
… but this may have been designed by an “artist”…. so who knows !!
Either way, I think we can all agree that this is a piece of pointless virtue-seeking garbage.
Ok, Doomer.
A couple small swipes of nail polish should send the solar panel into a terminal spiral.
Melbourne is a dusty, muddy place, if those local government employees aren’t diligent with the cleaning cloths, cleaning places nobody can see, the solar panel will sort itself out.
“the solar panel will sort itself out.”
Maybe with a little help 😉
Sorry, far from Melbourne and zero intent on going there.
I’m conflicted. I just can’t guess how long it will be before a passerby with a ballpein takes it out – I give it about a month.
Shouldn’t that be 2038?
Yeah, what happened to 2035?
Will it still be an attraction in 2040?
So when it reaches zero does it start counting with negative numbers, or does someone quietly remove it from public view because reality disagreed?.
So when it reaches zero does it start counting with negative numbers, or does someone quietly remove it from public view because reality disagreed?.
Maybe the clock counts down like the Microsoft software download clock works….seems to be self regulating and totally unrelated to real time.
Fixed it for ya