Doomsday Clock: Three minutes to midnight

WASHINGTON, Jan. 23 (UPI) -- The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists said they reset the Doomsday Clock to three minutes to midnight, meaning "the probability of global catastrophe is very high."

The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists Science and Security Board, which was founded by scientists who helped create the atomic bomb and is charged with regularly deciding whether to alter the time on the countdown to the end of the world, said world events led them to move the Doomsday Clock forward two minutes.

"In 2015, unchecked climate change, global nuclear weapons modernizations, and outsized nuclear weapons arsenals pose extraordinary and undeniable threats to the continued existence of humanity, and world leaders have failed to act with the speed or on the scale required to protect citizens from potential catastrophe. These failures of political leadership endanger every person on Earth," the board said.

The clock is the closest to midnight it has been since 1984, at the height of the Cold War. The Doomsday Clock was set the furthest from midnight in 1991, when it was 17 minutes away, and was the closest in 1953, when it was two minutes to midnight as a result of the United States and Soviet Union developing hydrogen bombs.

"In 2015, with the Clock hand moved forward to three minutes to midnight, the board feels compelled to add, with a sense of great urgency: 'The probability of global catastrophe is very high, and the actions needed to reduce the risks of disaster must be taken very soon,'" the board said.

The board recommended a series of steps be taken by world leaders:

-Take actions that would cap greenhouse gas emissions at levels sufficient to keep average global temperature from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels.

-Dramatically reduce proposed spending on nuclear weapons modernization programs. 

-Re-energize the disarmament process, with a focus on results. 

-Deal now with the nuclear waste problem.