Doomsday Clock: Experts warn global catastrophe is much closer

The Doomsday Clock's minute hand has been moved forward by two minutes to 11.47 PM, with experts warning that a global catastrophe is closer than it's been in 30 years.

The symbolic clock, founded in 1947, represents a countdown to possible global catastrophe through nuclear war or climate change.

It's maintained by a board of scientists, academics, and security specialists who periodically change the time - back or forward depending on the level of global risk.

The closer the clock is to midnight, the closer humanity is to a major disaster.

The last time the clock was moved forward was in 2012, by just one minute, over nuclear weapons stockpiles and global climate change.

This year's jump of two minutes brings us closer than we've been to a major disaster since the peak of the Cold War.

The rationale for the 11.57 timing is, according to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (BAS), the continued lack of action over climate change and weapons as well as increased tensions between nations with nuclear warheads - particularly Russia and the USA, which have come to blows over the Ukraine crisis.

"The danger is great, but our message is not one of hopelessness," said Kennette Benedict, BAS executive director, speaking at an announcement today.

She mentioned greenhouse gases transforming the Earth's climate in a dangerous way, leaving millions of people at risk from rising sea levels, famine and “killer storms”.

Benedict said that the BAS was "imploring" citizens to "speak clearly and demand leaders to take necessary steps".

"We're not saying it's too late, but the window for action is closing rapidly. The world needs to awaken from its lethargy."

The BAS was founded in 1945 by physicists who had helped to develop the world’s first atomic weapons under the Manhattan Project. The Doomsday Clock launched in 1947, shortly after their atomic bombs had devastated Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

It's the second time the clock has been at three minutes to midnight. The first was in 1984, during the Cold War, where US-Soviet relations were at their most difficult.

In 1953 it inched to 11.58 - the closest the clock has ever been to midnight - after the United States and the Soviet Union tested nuclear devices within 9 months of each other.