- published: 23 May 2016
- views: 40518
The Doomsday Clock is a symbolic clock face, representing a countdown to possible global catastrophe (e.g. nuclear war or climate change). It has been maintained since 1947 by the members of the Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, who are in turn advised by the Governing Board and the Board of Sponsors, including 18 Nobel Laureates. The closer they set the Clock to midnight, the closer the scientists believe the world is to global disaster.
Originally, the Clock, which hangs on a wall in the Bulletin's office in the University of Chicago, represented an analogy for the threat of global nuclear war; however, since 2007 it has also reflected climate change and new developments in the life sciences and technology that could inflict irrevocable harm to humanity. The most recent officially announced setting—three minutes to midnight (23:57)—was made in January 2015 due to "[un]checked climate change, global nuclear weapons modernizations, and outsized nuclear weapons arsenals". This setting was retained in January 2016.
Hah-hah-hah-hah-hah
Well you can write to me your truth and happenin's insi-ide
Or sell me a world that I don't need, then hitch a ri-ide
The driver laughs, we chase behind, tryin' to match his pace
You change our heads and you make our beds
It's a hopeless race
You're gettin' it all your way, you can't tell wrong from right
And right now you've got to pay
'Cause right now it's minutes to midnight
Well you can tell me all abou-out politics and kings
Or the price of cars and whisky jars and a million other thi-ings
But it seems to me my friend, a lot of lines are left unsai-aid
When the speaker has the only key to get inside his hea-ead
You're gettin' it all your way, you can't tell wrong from right
But right now you've got to pay
'Cause right now, it's minutes to midnight, yeah-eah, ah yeah-eah
No use in getting uptight, no use in startin' a fight
It's up to you now to make it alright
Your clocks readin' minutes to midnight
You're speakin' too late
Take my money, spend my life and do my thinkin' for me-ee
Negotiate and sell my time, till we come down from the tree-ee
You just stand with a book in your hand, walkin' my high wire
And lead our way for all who pay, from fryin' pan to fire
You're gettin' it all you're way, you can't tell wrong from right
And right now you've got to pay
'Cause right now, it's minutes to midnight, yeah-eah
It's gettin' too late
No use in gettin' uptight, no use in startin' a fight
It's up to you now to make it alright
Your clock's reading minutes to midnight
No use in gettin' uptight, no use in startin' a fight