It almost sounds like the famous “Linkin Park” album. And it holds many of the same calls to action that the artists did.

It is the Doomsday Clock. More of a metaphor than an actual time-keeper, it counts down the minutes until “midnight” or the annihilation of humanity as we know it.

Started back in 1947, it symbolized how close we are to a full-out nuclear war. Now it also includes the threat of climate change as well as bio-medical advances that could create pandemics.

The lowest the clock ever got was during the 50′s when we were 2 minutes to midnight. This was at the height of the cold war when the US and the USSR were testing nukes within months of each other to scare the other into submisison.

The highest the clock has ever been was in 1991 after the fall of the USSR. International cooperation led the the disarmament of many warheads, bringing a sigh of relief to mankind.

However, we are back down to six minutes, a one minute improvement from 2007 when North Korea was testing its ICBM’s. In my lifetime the clock rose and then fell again.

And it seems that the Doomsday Clock has done all the rising it will for the decade. I fear we will get closer to midnight this coming decade.