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4 December 2009
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Apocalypse Now... and Then
  APOCALYPSE NOW... AND THEN
Wednesday 2 August 2007 7.30pm-8.10pm
 
 

The story of the West's enduring obsession with the end of the world, from Old Testament prophesies to Sars and the Millennium Bug.

 
 
THREADS
October 2003
The fall-out classic showing for the first time in 18 years
  Threads
DAYS THAT SHOOK
October 2003
The 1945 bombing of Hiroshima
  Hiroshima

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It's The End of the World as We Know It
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Video and audio from the BBC news archive
 
  Tom Ware Tom Ware
Time Shift Series Editor
 
 

We are used to living in an age when the end of the world is always just around the corner. Over the last 30 years, scientific research and media novelty have combined to make every scare feel like it could be the next end of the world. And it seems like, with each discovery that our existence is just as fragile as we feared, science has taken on the same doomsday appeal as old testament religion - while, increasingly, modern religions employs the logic and reason of science to convince non-believers they have the answers.

Dee Ryding's fascinating Time Shift explores how, from the 1970s New Ice Age, via global warming, nuclear winters, Sars and millennium bugs, we've successfully survived every predicted apocalypse, only to invent a new one to get worried about.

 


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