Doomsday Clock moved closer to midnight than ever before
The Doomsday Clock, which symbolises how close humanity is to destruction, has been moved to 89 seconds to midnight, the closest it has ever been. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (BAS) which sets the clock every year has said that nuclear threats, potential misuses of artificial intelligence and biological threats, and climate change were the main reasons for this.
The latest move was “a warning to all world leaders,” said Daniel Holz, chair of the Bulletin’s Science and Security Board.
When the clock was first launched in 1947, it was placed at seven minutes to midnight. Last year, it was left at 90 seconds away. In a statement, the BAS, a non-profit organisation based in Chicago, said “in setting the clock one second closer to midnight, we send a stark signal.” This means that the clock is closer than it was, even during the Cold War and Cuban Missile Crisis.
“Because the world is already perilously close to the precipice, a move of even a single second should be taken as an indication of extreme danger and an unmistakable warning that every second of delay in reversing course increases the probability of global disaster,” it said.
The ongoing war in Ukraine that has now reached its third year since the full-scale invasion by Russia, “could become nuclear at any moment because of a rash decision or through accident or miscalculation,” it warned. “Conflict in the Middle East threatens to spiral out of control into a wider war without warning.”
The panel of scientists in charge of the Doomsday Clock also said that “the long-term prognosis for the world’s attempts to deal with climate change remains poor, as most governments fail to enact the financing and policy initiatives necessary to halt global warming.”
The BAS also called out “emerging and re-emerging diseases” which it said “continue to threaten the economy, society and security of the world,” as well as “an array of other disruptive technologies advanced last year in ways that make the world more dangerous.”
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