Closer Than Ever: Doomsday Clock Advanced To '89 Seconds To Midnight'

CHICAGO — The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists announced Tuesday that it was moving the minute hand on the Doomsday Clock from 90 seconds to 89 seconds to midnight, the closest it has even come to global catastrophe.

The Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, based in Hyde Park, meets at least twice a year to deliberate the Doomsday Clock. In January 2020, the minute hand was moved 30 seconds forward from two minutes to 100 seconds before midnight. In 2023, the minute hand was moved ten seconds closer to midnight from 100 to 90 seconds.

“Our fervent hope is that leaders will recognize the world’s existential predicament and take bold action to reduce the threats posed by nuclear weapons, climate change, and the potential misuse of biological science and a variety of emerging technologies.”

Members of the Atomic Bulletin Science and Security Board warned that even a move of a single second should be taken as “an unmistakable warning that every second of delay in reversing course increases the probability of global disaster.”

They cited the war in Ukraine, now in its third year, that continues to loom over the world as a nuclear tinderbox, fearing the conflict could become nuclear at any moment “because of a rash decision or through accident or miscalculation.” Scientists also mentioned the conflict in the Middle East and countries that already possess nuclear weapons investing billions in their arsenals that can destroy civilization.

“Alarmingly, it is no longer unusual for countries without nuclear weapons to consider developing arsenals of their own—actions that would undermine longstanding nonproliferation efforts and increase the ways in which nuclear war could start.”

The long-term prognosis for the world’s attempts to deal with climate change remain poor, as most governments fail to enact the financing and policy initiatives necessary to halt global warming, according to the Bulletin.

Sea-level rise, record-breaking global temperature, greenhouse gas emission continue to drive climate change. Extreme weather and other climate change-influenced events – floods, tropical cyclones, heat waves, drought and wildfires have affected every continent.

“Judging from recent electoral campaigns, climate change is viewed as a low priority in the United States and many other countries.” the scientists stated.

Other reasons mentioned in moving the Doomsday Clock ahead a second include biological threats with emerging and re-emerging diseases that continue to threaten the economy, society, and security of the world. Advances in such disruptive technologies as artificial intelligence and drones, contribute to the risk of terrorists or countries developing new biological weapons for which no countermeasures exist.

Further, the scientists maintain the spread of misinformation, disinformation, and conspiracy theories are degrading the communication ecosystem and increasingly blurring the line between truth and falsehood.

“The battered information landscape is also producing leaders who discount science and endeavor to suppress free speech and human rights, compromising the fact-based public discussions that are required to combat the enormous threats facing the world.”

“To blindly continue on the current path is a form of madness,” the Bulletin concluded. “The United States, China, and Russia have the collective power to destroy civilization. These three countries have the prime responsibility to pull the world back from the brink, and they can do so if their leaders seriously commence good-faith discussions about the global threats outlined here. Despite their profound disagreements, they should take that first step without delay. The world depends on immediate action.”

Up until Tuesday, the clock has been moved 26 times in its 78-year history. The Doomsday Clock was reset at 17 minutes before midnight — the furthest back it has ever been set — due largely to the signing of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty between the United States and Soviet Union, ending the Cold War.

The closest the hands ever came was two minutes to midnight in 1953, when Russia and the United States were testing hydrogen bombs. Even during the Cuban Missile in 1962, when the world was seemingly on the brink of nuclear war, the clock remained set at seven minutes to midnight.

The Doomsday Clock was created in 1947 as a visual indicator of global apocalypse by the Bulletin, which was founded two years earlier by scientists Albert Einstein, J Robert Oppenheimer and Eugene Rabinowitch, along with other University of Chicago scholars.