Failure to address the threats posed by nuclear proliferation and climate change has moved forth the long hand of the Doomsday Clock: the symbolic countdown was created by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists in 1947 to warn about man-made existential perils to humanity. It now stands at three minutes to midnight, the closest the clock has ticked towards doomsday since 1984, at the height of the Cold War. It may be no coincidence at all if it sounds Orwellian.
