Climate change resets 'Doomsday Clock'.


Experts assessing the dangers posed to civilisation have added climate change to the prospect of nuclear annihilation as the greatest threats to humankind.
As a result, the group has moved the minute hand on its famous 'Doomsday Clock' two minutes closer to midnight.
The concept timepiece now stands at five minutes to the hour.
The 60-year-old clock, based at the University of Chicago and maintained by the magazine Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, serves as a monitor on the possible use of nuclear weapons and nuclear war.
Midnight represents global catastrophe.
This is the fourth time since the end of the Cold War that the clock has ticked forward.
Professor Stephen Hawking suffers from motor neurone disease. Speaking through a voice synthesiser, he has explained why the clock has been moved again.
"We stand at the brink of a second nuclear age, in a period of unprecedented violence," he said.
"Scientists have a special responsibility, once again, to inform the public and to advise leaders about the perils that humanity faces."
John Hallam from Friends of the Earth Australia says a number of grave concerns have prompted the step.
"There has been contingency planning within the Pentagon for nuclear strikes against Iran and there have been a series of articles over the possibility of Israel undertaking nuclear strikes," he said.
"Some of the psychological and political barriers to the unthinkable are being gradually demolished."
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