The “Doomsday Clock,” which indicates how close humanity is to catastrophe, moved closer to midnight recently due to growing concerns about nuclear weapons, climate change and misinformation.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which established the metaphorical clock at the start of the Cold War, moved its time to 85 seconds to midnight – four seconds closer than a year ago.
The announcement came a year into US President Donald Trump’s second term. During this time, he has conducted military attacks in other countries without the support of allies, used force within the United States even when local leaders disagreed, and withdrawn the country from several international organisations.
Russia, China, the United States and other major countries have become increasingly aggressive, adversarial and nationalistic, according to a statement announcing the clock shift.
This decision was made after consultations with a board that includes eight Nobel laureates.
“Hard-won global understandings are collapsing, accelerating a winner-takes-all great power competition and undermining the international cooperation critical to reducing the risks of nuclear war, climate change, the misuse of biotechnology, the potential threat of artificial intelligence and other apocalyptic dangers,” the statement warned.
The Doomsday Clock board warned of heightened risks of a nuclear arms race, as the New START nuclear arms reduction treaty between the United States and Russia expired earlier this month.
Trump also threatened to resume nuclear testing and is pushing a costly “Golden Dome” missile defence system that would further militarise space.
The board highlighted record levels of carbon dioxide emissions, the primary cause of rising global temperatures, as Trump significantly reverses US policies on combating climate change, prompting other countries to follow suit.
Underpinning the threats, board members warned of a dangerous fracturing of global trust.
“We are living through an information Armageddon – the crisis beneath all crises – driven by extractive and predatory technology that spreads lies faster than facts and profits from our division,” said Maria Ressa, an investigative journalist and Nobel Peace Prize winner from the Philippines.
Ressa highlighted Trump’s use of force in Minnesota and his threats to seize Greenland as instances of losing “the battle for information integrity”, where memes have become reality.
Board members also voiced their alarm over Trump’s crackdown in Minnesota, where he deployed masked, armed anti-immigration agents.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, founded by Albert Einstein, Robert Oppenheimer and other nuclear scientists at the University of Chicago, initially placed the clock at seven minutes to midnight in 1947.
They had seen the impact of nuclear weapons at the end of World War II when the US dropped atomic weapons on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. They aimed to pressure world leaders to ensure these types of weapons were never used again.
What was the origin of the idea behind the Doomsday Clock?
The Doomsday Clock is a symbol that indicates how close humanity is to catastrophic destruction. It tracks the various dangers posed by humans and uses the phrase “minutes to midnight” to indicate the time remaining before a global disaster.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists updates the clock’s hands every year to warn the public and encourage proactive safety measures. When the Doomsday Clock was established in 1947, it focused primarily on the threat of nuclear weapons and was set at seven minutes to midnight (see graphic).
In 2007, the organisation began to include climate change as a significant factor in its assessments.
