NEW YORK, Jan. 14 (UPI) -- Atomic scientists in New York moved the doomsday clock a minute further away from midnight, citing positive developments in nuclear weapons and climate change.
"For the first time since atomic bombs were dropped in 1945, leaders of nuclear weapons states are cooperating to vastly reduce their arsenals and secure all nuclear bomb-making material," the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists said in a release. "And for the first time ever, industrialized and developing countries alike are pledging to limit climate-changing gas emissions that could render our planet nearly uninhabitable."
The organization, which includes 19 Nobel laureates, said it added the minute because the world may be at the point "where major powers no longer see the value of nuclear weapons for war-fighting or even for deterrence."
The bulletin, which created the clock in 1947, first set it at 7 minutes to midnight, or "catastrophic destruction." It has adjusted it 19 times since then.
The bulletin credited a growing partnership between the United States and Russia resulted in the two countries working to reduce their nuclear warhead arsenals.
On issues of climate change, the foundation of collaboration was laid in the Nov. 17 U.S.-China joint agreement to reduce carbon emissions.
"Without the concerted effort of these two largest contributors to greenhouse gases, the Copenhagen Accord would have been unthinkable," the organization said.
