The Doomsday Clock Sounds a Warning

Republicans might want to run on this in the Fall against Obama:

As if the Mayan calendar and all the hype surrounding Dec. 21, 2012, weren't enough to distract the average pessimist, this week the Doomsday Clock maintained by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists was moved up a full minute to 11:55 p.m.

The bulletin cited two reasons for resetting the symbolic clock a minute closer to mankind's witching hour: the failure to curb nuclear arms proliferation and the lack of a meaningful global response to climate change that includes the world's biggest producers of carbon dioxide.

Moving the minute hand forward represents a retreat from a brief moment of optimism the scientists had when they nudged the clock back a minute two years ago. The scientists were heartened then by the international talks in Copenhagen on climate change. They also believed that nuclear stockpiles would begin shrinking. As a result, the optimism of the Nobel laureates and other scientists who represent the bulletin has turned to disappointment.

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