Doomsday Clock moves closer to midnight than ever before
Experts cite mounting global tensions, new disruption technologies, and climate change as reasons for the tick towards midnight
The Doomsday Clock is now the closest it has ever been to global annihilation than ever before.
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The clock, which is set annually by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, was on Tuesday shifted four seconds forward, to 85 seconds to midnight.
In the clock’s 79-year history, this is the closest that it has come to midnight.
The Doomsday Clock was established by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, a Chicago-based nonprofit, in 1947.
This was in the context of Cold War tensions between the US and the Soviet Union, with a constant fear of nuclear apocalypse.
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This is the second year in a row that the clock has moved closer to midnight, with the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists citing multiple threats to global stability for the decision.
Nuclear weapons, climate change, technologies with destructive potential such as AI, and the creation of synthetic biological substances called 'mirror life', all factored into the decision to bring the hand closer to midnight.
The chair of the Bulletin's Science and Security Board, Daniel Holz, said on the decision: “Last year, we warned that the world was perilously close to catastrophe and that countries needed to change course towards international cooperation and action on the most critical and existential risks.
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“Unfortunately, the opposite has happened.”
“The latest remaining treaty governing nuclear weapon stockpiles between the US and Russia expires next week.”
“For the first time in over half a century, there will be nothing preventing a runaway nuclear arms race.”