Is the world out of control?

THE year 2017 began with a dismal proclamation by the scientific community. In January a group of scientists declared that the world just got closer to the worst catastrophe ever. Using the symbolic Doomsday Clock to illustrate mankind’s proximity to a global disaster, scientists moved the clock’s minute hand forward by 30 seconds. The Doomsday Clock is now set at merely two and a half minutes to midnight​—nearer to a global catastrophe than at any time in over 60 years!

In 2018, scientists plan to evaluate again how close we are to the end of the world as we know it. Will the Doomsday Clock still signal an impending and unprecedented catastrophe? What do you think? Is the world out of control? You might find the question somewhat difficult to answer. After all, even experts are divided on this subject. Not everyone believes in an inevitable doomsday.

In fact, millions of people believe in a bright future. They profess to have evidence showing that mankind and our planet will survive indefinitely and that our quality of life will improve. Is that evidence credible? Is the world out of control or not?

“The Doomsday Clock is an internationally recognized design that conveys how close we are to destroying our civilization with dangerous technologies of our own making. First and foremost among these are nuclear weapons, but the dangers include climate-changing technologies, emerging biotechnologies, and cybertechnology that could inflict irrevocable harm, whether by intention, miscalculation, or by accident, to our way of life and to the planet.”​—Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

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https://www.jw.org/en/publications/magazines/awake-no6-2017-december/the-world-out-of-control/