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NUCLEAR SCIENTISTS HAVE MOVED DOOMSDAY CLOCK FORWARD, WARNING OF 'NEW NUCLEAR AGE' SCIENTIFIC REFERENCE FOR STABILITY OF CIVILIZATION NOW INCLUDES GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE AS MAJOR, GROWING THREAT 18 January 2007 The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists has moved the minute hand on the figurative 'Doomsday Clock' forward 2 minutes, from 7 minutes to Midnight to 5 minutes to midnight. The figurative clock measures the possibility of major threats to civilization bringing about the end of continuity in human society, and was initiated due to the threat from nuclear weapons. This year, for the first time, global climate change has become integral to the scientists' evaluation of the overall threat to the longevity of human civilization. The threat from climate change was described by the Bulletin group as "nearly as dire" as that posed by the continuing proliferation of nuclear armament. The Detroit Free Press reports "It was the fourth time since the end of the Cold War that the clock has ticked forward, this time from 11:53 to 11:55, amid fears over what the scientists are describing as 'a second nuclear age' prompted largely by atomic standoffs with Iran and North Korea." The official statement from the scientists participating in this new evaluation of global peril reads "As citizens of the world, we have a duty to alert the public to the unnecessary risks that we live with every day, and to the perils we foresee if governments and societies do not take action now to render nuclear weapons obsolete and to prevent further climate change." The last move to the clock was on 27 February 2002, when it moved forward to 11:53 from 11:51, signalling an increase in global instability. The evaluation at that time took into account the statement by US pres. George W. Bush that he planned to withdraw the US from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which was designed to reduce nuclear proliferation by curbing arsenals in US and Russia. In 2002, the US withdrew from the treaty. The New Scientist magazine quotes the Bulletin as listing the following as major reasons for the threat level escalation:
English Astronomer Royal, Sir Martin Rees, noted that the impact of human activity on the environment is now known to be intensely disruptive and on a scale without precedent in human history. He also warned: "These environmentally driven threats —'threats without enemies'— should loom as large in the political perspective as did the East/West political divide during the Cold War era". [s]
BACKGROUND: Science is in many ways an artform, but it is specifically and most importantly, the art of knowledge. It is not philosophy, not a study of how knowledge comes about, what it is, whether it can be trusted or whether we need to adjust our thinking; it is, instead, a direct study of the natural world, its tendencies, its evidence, and its capacity to work with us, for us and around us. [Full Story] WARRANTLESS NSA WIRETAPS RULED UNCONSTITUTIONAL A federal judge in Detroit ruled early yesterday that Pres. Bush's NSA surveillance program, which uses wiretaps implemented with no judicial oversight, is unconstitutional. The ruling strongly enforced the point that there are "no powers not created by the Constitution" rejecting the AG's claim that the Congressional Authorization for the Use of Military Force (in Afghanistan) as a legal platform for sweeping new domestic powers. [Full Story] DATA SHADOWS & IMPROBABLE CONSENT Neither contracts nor "terms and conditions" including indemnities disclaimers, can be classified as legislation. They do not make or construct legal limits by themselves. Obvious as this may seem, it is a necessary introduction to the problem of the trade in personal information and "soft surveillance", whereby one is routinely subjected to interrogation, inspection and even physical search, not for having broken any laws or even aroused any reasonable suspicion, but simply because "that's policy". [Full Story] US STATE DEPT. MANDATES NEW PASSPORTS WILL CONTAIN RFID TRACKING CHIPS The State Department has announced it will introduce new passports with electronic features such as Radio Frequency IDentification chips, intended to match information stored on these chips to the bearer's physical appearance, and to other information. Privacy advocates say the move is a giant leap toward a state of totalitarian interference in citizens' movements and personal information. [Full Story] IS YOUR CEREAL BROADCASTING YOUR SECRETS? How much do you know about your cereal, and how much does it know about you? What about your money, your passport, your boarding pass? These are just some of the items in your personal sphere which may soon be broadcasting radio frequencies, testifying to your habits and your movement. RFID, or Radio Frequency IDentification technology, is the reason why. Various private firms are currently researching, designing, producing and selling RFID chips similar to a grain of rice in size and shape, which can be implanted in human beings in order to verify their identity. [Full Story] |
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