Giant Clock Installed Letna Hill is Counting Down to Climate Disaster

Climate campaigners unveiled in Prague a huge countdown clock on Tuesday evening, showing how little time is left before global temperatures hit a critical high.

The electronic clock has been installed on Letna Hill, next to the famous metronome as part of the Freedom Festival.

The clock is 8 meters high and 35 meters wide. It will remain on the hill for just two weeks, until December 12.

The left side of the clock shows the number of years and days, while the right side shows the hours, minutes, and seconds remaining until “mankind passes the point of no return, when climate change will become irreversible and catastrophic for the planet.”

A report by the United Nations issued in 2018, said global warming was likely to reach 1.5°C over preindustrial levels between 2030 and 2052 if it continues at the current rate.

That level of warming is projected to increase damage to many ecosystems and cause an estimated $54 trillion in damage, the report said.

The digital installation shows six years and 235 days remaining before average global temperatures, at current emission rates, reach 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

The organizers of the Freedom Festival in Prague have also launched a petition urging Czech politicians to be more active in tackling the climate issue.

“We want to remind citizens, including politicians, in a non-violent but nevertheless very powerful way that climate change is an acute threat to the future of the Czech Republic, where freedom, peace and democracy reign,” says Marek Cieslar, spokesperson for the Festival of Freedom.

Studio Multiverse is behind the project. “The clock has a minimal ecological burden and consumes about as much energy as one domestic stove,” the studio said.

Prague is the first European city east of Berlin to have installed a climate clock.

Countries in the 2015 Paris Agreement agreed on measures to limit emissions to stay below the critical temperature mark.