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Doomsday Clock Moves One Minute Closer To Armageddon

CHICAGO (CBS) -- The Chicago-based Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has deemed the world one day closer to doomsday.

As WBBM Newsradio's Steve Miller reports, the Doomsday Clock – a 65-year-old symbol of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists at the University of Chicago - has been reset.

LISTEN: WBBM Newsradio's Steve Miller reports

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Up until Tuesday, it read 11:54 p.m. And now it reads 11:55.

Midnight symbolizes the destruction of humanity.

The executive director of the Bulletin, Kennette Benedict, has two main concerns – nuclear arms and climate change.

"Leaders around the world seem to be kind of stuck in about the 1990s," Benedict said, "and we haven't really moved much in thinking about how to rid the world of nuclear weapons, and we haven't really begun to confront the challenges of climate change."

Benedict says the Arab Spring and the Occupy movements indicate awakenings, but she says they're not enough to stop the hand of time from moving closer to Doomsday.

The Doomsday Clock was created in 1947 by U of C scientists. The clock came closest to midnight – just two minutes away – back in 1953 after the successful test of a hydrogen bomb by the U.S.

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