<div><a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070117/sc_nm/doomsday_clock_dc_4">http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070117/sc_nm/doomsday_clock_dc_4</a></div>
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<div>But the scientists also said destruction of human habitats wreaked by climate change brought on by human activities is a growing danger.</div>
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<p>"Global warming poses a dire threat to human civilization that is second only to nuclear weapons," they said.</p>
<p>The announcement was made in news conferences in London and Washington.</p>
<p>"We foresee great peril if governments and societies do not take action now to render nuclear weapons obsolete and to prevent further climate change," theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking of the University of Cambridge, a member of the bulletin's board of sponsors, told reporters in London.
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<p>Many scientists predict dire consequences from global warming, including higher sea levels that over time could swamp coastal regions, more severe storms and worse wildfires. Human activities like burning of fossil fuels contribute to warming, they contend.
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<p>Physicist Lawrence Krauss of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland said if humankind fails to change course on global warming, "there's a great possibility that the Earth in the year 2100 will only dimly resemble our planet today -- and as it has existed over the past 500,000 years."
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<p>Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett</p></div>