Doomsday Clock

The Doomsday Clock, Credit: The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

There have been a number of articles reporting about the infamous Doomsday Clock and it's hands being set at 3 minutes to midnight, Skeptical Science reports that there have only been two other instances where the clock was set at three 'til, in 1953 after hydrogen bomb testing, and in 1984 during a Cold War "chill". The Doomsday Clock is supposed to signal environmental catastrophe, if we don't do anything about it, and lately climate change has been a major factor in affecting the hands of the Doomsday time.

This isn't surprising, considering our increasing proximity to crossing the carbon budget lines. We've heard all semester, over and over, the dangers of our current behaviors, especially if we keep "business as usual", and this stunt with the Doomsday Clock, an ostentatiously named social device to encourage or to scare, is a signal to people that change needs to happen. I've been looking a lot at what convinces people of the reality of climate change and persuades them to take action. This is  an example of one method of persuasion, using a dramatic device called a "Doomsday Clock" to suggest impending peril. It's a scare tactic, really. Though I honestly hadn't heard of it until these articles came out. I don't know if this is a great method of persuasion for this issue, but I guess whatever works will work.

Source: http://www.climatecentral.org/news/climate-change-doomsday-clock-18576