UPDATED: February 1, 2021 13:45 IST
Smoghouse Delhi: A polluted day in the national capital (Photo: Chandradeep Kumar)
Seven minutes to midnight. That was the setting of the doomsday clock the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists devised in 1947 to indicate just how close humanity was to a man-made global catastrophe caused by unchecked scientific and technological advances. Initially meant to warn of the dangers of a nuclear war, in recent decades, the threats caused by climate change have made the clock tick even faster. The Covid pandemic is a grim reminder of the consequences of upsetting nature's fragile balance by overexploiting earth's resources. The big message being, act now or face horrendous consequences.