Almotamar.net Google - Climate change and nuclear proliferation have moved the world closer to apocalypse, Professor Stephen Hawking and his colleagues have warned.
At the same time, the hand of a Doomsday Clock has moved two minutes closer to midnight.
The clock, devised at the dawn of the nuclear age, has made official what many now feel in their bones � that mankind is heading for catastrophe.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which created the Doomsday Clock in 1947 to warn the world of the dangers of nuclear weapons, advanced the clock to five minutes to midnight.
It was the first adjustment of the clock since 2002, and the fourth time since the end of the Cold War that the clock has ticked forward. "We foresee great peril if governments and societies do not take action now," said Professor Hawking, who is a member of the bulletin's board of sponsors.
The move from 11.53 to 11.55 has been prompted by the failure to curb the atomic ambitions of Iran and North Korea, leading to a "second nuclear age".
"As scientists, we understand the dangers of nuclear weapons and their devastating effects, and we are learning how human activities and technologies are affecting climate systems in ways that may forever change life on earth," said Professor Hawking.
And Lord Rees, the president of the Royal Society, said man faced the prospect of terrorists detonating a nuclear weapon in the heart of a city, "killing tens of thousands along with themselves, and millions around the world would acclaim them as heroes".
But 21st century technology could, he said, offer "immense opportunities" for the developing and the developed world.
Professor Hawking described how the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists was founded in 1945 by scientists deeply concerned about nuclear weapons, "the most destructive technology on earth". In 1947, the bulletin introduced its clock, kept in Chicago, to evoke both the imagery of apocalypse, midnight, and the contemporary idiom of a nuclear explosion � the countdown to zero.
Since it was set to 11.53 in 1947, the hand has been moved 18 times, and was as far as 17 minutes away after the demise of the Soviet Union.
The closest it came to midnight, 11.58, was in 1953, following the successful test of a hydrogen bomb by the United States.
"But for good luck, we would all be dead," said Professor Hawking.
"As we stand at the brink of a second nuclear age, and a period of unprecedented climate change, scientists have a special responsibility."
The decision to move the clock is made by the bulletin's board, which is composed of prominent scientists and policy experts, including 18 Nobel laureates, in co-ordination with sponsors.
TELEGRAPH, REUTERS