ASU's Krauss: Doomsday Clock advances toward midnight

On a figurative countdown to the end of the world, known as the Doomsday Clock, "it is now two and one-half minutes to midnight," according to a New York Times op-ed co-authored by Lawrence Krauss, director of Arizona State University's Origins Project.

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, of which Krauss is the chairman of the board of sponsors, is marking the 70th anniversary of its Doomsday Clock on Jan. 26 by moving it 30 seconds closer to midnight.

Failings from the international community to "come to grips with humanity’s most pressing threats: nuclear weapons and climate change" last year have contributed to the change, as well as U.S. President Donald Trump promises "to impede progress on both of those fronts," Krauss and co-author David Titley, retired rear admiral and former chairman of the Navy’s Task Force on Climate Change, said.

"Never before has the Bulletin decided to advance the clock largely because of the statements of a single person. But when that person is the new president of the United States, his words matter," according to the op-ed.

The last time the clock has been this close to midnight was in 1953, when it was moved to two minutes to midnight after the U.S. and Soviet Union tested nuclear weapons within six months of one another.