Nuclear, climate perils push Doomsday Clock ahead

WASHINGTON: The scientists who mind the Doomsday Clock moved it two minutes closer to midnight on Wednesday symbolizing the annihilation of civilization and adding the perils of global warming for the first time.

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 until midnight. It was the first adjustment since 2002.

"We stand at the brink of a second nuclear age," the bulletin's board of directors said in a statement.