Minutes To Midnight

Alot of people does not know the meaning of "Minutes to midnight" actually there's a doomsday clock created by some scientists. It uses the analogy of the human race being at a time that is "minutes to midnight" where midnight represents "catastrophic destruction". The analogy originally represented the threat of global nuclear war, but has since evolved to include nuclear weapons, climate-changing technologies and "new developments in the life sciences and nanotechnology that could inflict irrevocable harm to the earth. The number of minutes before midnight, a measure of the degree of nuclear, environmental, and technological threats, is updated periodically. The clock is currently set to five minutes to midnight, having been advanced by two minutes on January 17, 2007. It means that if the doomsday clock reach to midnight 12 o'clock then this world/earth will die...

above the picture is a doomsday clock

Year:1947
Mins Left:7
Time:11:53
Change:--
Reason:The initial setting of the Doomsday Clock.


Year:1949
Mins Left:3
Time:11:57
Change:-4
Reason:The Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb.


Year:1953
Mins Left:2
Time:11:58
Change:-1
Reason:The United States and the Soviet Union test thermonuclear devices within nine months of one another. The clock is at its closest approach to midnight to date.

Year:1960
Mins Left:7
Time:11:53
Change:+5
Reason:In response to a perception of increased scientific cooperation and public understanding of the dangers of nuclear weapons.


Year:1963
Mins Left:12
Time:11:48
Change:+5
Reason:The United States and Soviet Union sign the Partial Test Ban Treaty, limiting atmospheric nuclear testing.


Year:1968
Mins Left:7
Time:11:53
Change:-5
Reason:France and China acquire and test nuclear weapons (1960 and 1964 respectively), wars rage on in the Middle East, Indian subcontinent, and Vietnam.


Year:1969
Mins Left:10
Time:11:50
Change:+3
Reason:The U.S. Senate ratifies the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.


Year:1972
Mins Left:12
Time:11:48
Change:+2
Reason:The United States and the Soviet Union sign the SALT I (Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty) and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.


Year:1974
Mins Left:9
Time:11:51
Change:-3
Reason:India tests a nuclear device (Smiling Buddha), SALT II talks stall.


Year:1980
Mins Left:7
Time:11:53
Change:-2
Reason:Further deadlock in US-USSR talks, increase in nationalist wars and terrorist actions.


Year:1981
Mins Left:4
Time:11:56
Change:-3
Reason:Arms race escalates, conflicts in Afghanistan, South Africa, and Poland add to world tension.


Year:1984
Mins Left:3
Time:11:57
Change:-1
Reason:Further escalation of the arms race under the U.S. policies of Ronald Reagan.


Year:1988
Mins Left:6
Time:11:54
Change:+3
Reason:The U.S. and the Soviet Union sign treaty to eliminate intermediate-range nuclear forces, relations improve.


Year:1990
Mins Left:10
Time:11:50
Change:+4
Reason:Fall of the Berlin Wall, success of anti-communist movements in Eastern Europe, Cold War nearing an end.


Year:1991
Mins Left:17
Time:11:43
Change:+7
Reason:United States and Soviet Union sign the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. The clock is at its greatest distance from midnight so far.


Year:1995
Mins Left:14
Time:11:46
Change:-3
Reason:Global military spending continues at Cold War levels; concerns about post-Soviet nuclear proliferation of weapons and brainpower.


Year:1998
Mins Left:9
Time:11:51
Change:-5
Reason:Both India and Pakistan test nuclear weapons in a tit-for-tat show of aggression; the United States and Russia run into difficulties in further reducing stockpiles.


Year:2002
Mins Left:7
Time:11:53
Change:-2
Reason:Little progress on global nuclear disarmament; United States rejects a series of arms control treaties and announces its intentions to withdraw from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty; terrorists seek to acquire nuclear weapons.


Year:2007
Mins Left:5
Time:11:55
Change:-2
Reason:North Korea’s recent test of a nuclear weapon, Iran’s nuclear ambitions, a renewed U.S. emphasis on the military utility of nuclear weapons, the failure to adequately secure nuclear materials, and the continued presence of some 26,000 nuclear weapons in the United States and Russia.[4] Experts assessing the dangers posed to civilization have added climate change to the prospect of nuclear annihilation as the greatest threats to humankind.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minutes_to_midnight