Doomsday Clock left at two minutes to midnight amid nuclear war, climate change threats.

A renewed nuclear arms race, rising greenhouse gas emissions and the emergence of state-sponsored disinformation campaigns have left the modern world as close to annihilation as it was at the height of the Cold War, atomic scientists said.

The clock's setting should serve as a "stark warning," scientists said.

The Doomsday Clock, created by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists as an indicator of the world's susceptibility to apocalypse, has been left at two minutes to midnight for a second year running in what the scientists called a dangerous "new abnormal”.

"Though unchanged from 2018, this setting should be taken not as a sign of stability but as a stark warning to leaders and citizens around the world," the Chicago-based group said in a statement.

Humanity's two simultaneous existential threats of nuclear war and climate change were exacerbated during the past year by the "increased use of information warfare to undermine democracy around the world," the group said

Read the ABC News story - “Doomsday Clock left at two minutes to midnight amid nuclear war, climate change threats.”

Coal opened the window to the modern world

Love it or hate it, coal played a crucial role in launching us into the modern world by fuelling the Industrial Revolution. The byproducts of that role were, of course, the rise of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere and dangerous levels of air pollution in the big coal-fuelled cities.

But despite its insidious influence on the climate and our health, coal has a lesser-known positive side to its otherwise dark soul. It has provided us with some stunning fossils.

Geologists have known for centuries that coal is an accumulation of plant material that, once buried in the Earth’s sedimentary layers, gets compressed by gravity into a denser, compact form. Yet, in recent years, scientists have hotly debated the early phases of coal formation.

Read the piece by the Strategic Professor in Palaeontology from Flinders University, John Long on The Conversation -  “Coal’s formation is a window on an ancient world.”

Making sense of the 'big picture' helps the small parts

It is only when we can make sense of the “big picture” view of life that the smaller parts of what is a truly complex jigsaw begin to fall into place.

Richard Heinberg

Richard Heinberg, writing in his 2012 edition of Muse Letter, takes us through some big picture images with his piece “The Fight of the Century”.

Heinberg is well-known for his thoughtful pieces on the unfolding difficulties the world faces through energy depletion and an imploding economy.

His February musings are long, especially in a world in which shorter concentration spans are encouraged, and thoughtful, something that again is not encouraged by the ‘responsible men’ of the modern world, but is well worth the 30 minutes, or so, it will take to read it.

However, its value is not to be found in its simple reading rather, it is something that needs serious consideration and, hopefully, some resultant action.