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December 9, 1995
Web posted at: 7:15 p.m. EST
From Correspondent Lisa Price
CHICAGO (CNN) -- Scientists moved the hands of the Doomsday Clock forward three minutes Friday, saying that the threat of nuclear apocalypse still looms over the world.
"The world is still a very dangerous place and the trends are in the wrong direction," said Leonard Rieser, chairman of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which used the clock to symbolically measure the state of world affairs since 1947.
The Doomsday Clock had stood still at 17 minutes to midnight (the symbolic hour of nuclear holocaust) since 1991, when a feeling of optimism buoyed by the end of the Cold War settled over much of the world. But in the last four years, life has grown more perilous, the scientists say.
"It's not simply that there's one danger," said John Pike, a member of the Bulletin, but rather that there are multiple attitudes and many of the trends are turning in the wrong direction." (94K AIFF sound or 94K WAV sound)
"Unfortunately, the world did not take advantage of the opportunities available at (the end of the Cold War)," said Rieser.
Scientists say an emerging adversarial relationship with the former Soviet Union, the proliferation of nuclear weapons, and an apathetic U.S. population are to blame.
"We are not crying fire in the word's theater," Rieser said. "But we do want to sound an alarm, particularly in regard to nuclear weapons. We do want to call for increased vigilance." (136K AIFF sound or 136K WAV sound)
The Bulletin made its decision after panel discussion on Thursday that touched issues such as increasing world tensions, deteriorating safeguards of nuclear stockpiles, and increased nuclear terrorism.
The Bulletin has moved the hands of the clock 16 times since 1947. It was closest to nuclear holocaust in 1953, when the United States detonated its first hydrogen bomb. The hands crept up to two minutes to midnight at that time. The time was three minutes to midnight in both 1949 (the Soviet Union's first atomic bomb) and 1984.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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