Humanity is closer than ever to coming to an end. The Doomsday Clock, which symbolically measures the end of the world, was advanced by ten seconds on Tuesday and has placed humanity closer to a planetary cataclysm as a result of the war in Ukraine, nuclear tensions and the climate crisis.
It is a symbolic clock that represents a “metaphor for humanity’s closeness to self-annihilation” and is updated each year by the science and safety board of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists and its patrons, including 11 Nobel laureates are listed.
Until now, the closest it has gotten to midnight, the fateful hour they hope will never come, has been 100 seconds. In fact, it has remained at this figure in recent years, since January 2020.
However, a global pandemic later, a volcano and an armed conflict, among other aspects, have made things worse and brought us even closer to the end of humanity. Specifically, 10 seconds, which is the time that atomic scientists have decided to advance the clock, which is now only 90 seconds from that midnight.
In a statement, the Bulletin justifies this advance “due largely, but not exclusively, to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the increased risk of nuclear escalation.”
Also weighing “the continuing threats posed by the climate crisis and the collapse of global norms and institutions necessary to mitigate the risks associated with advancing technologies and biological threats such as covid-19,” they add.
“90 seconds to midnight is as close to midnight as the clock has been set, and it’s a decision our experts don’t take lightly.”
Rachel Bronson
President and CEO of the Bulletin
Disinformation and surveillance technologies have also contributed to this decision. “We live in a time of unprecedented danger, and the Doomsday Clock reflects that reality,” said Rachel Bronson, the Bulletin’s president and CEO.
“90 seconds to midnight is as close to midnight as the clock has been set, and it’s a decision our experts don’t take lightly,” Bronson insisted.
“The US government, its NATO allies and Ukraine have a multitude of channels for dialogue,” he said. “We urge leaders to explore them all to their fullest capacity to turn back the clock.” Therefore, the group’s statement is available for the first time in English, Russian and Ukrainian.
Former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also called on world leaders to take action in a world made more dangerous by covid-19, extreme weather events, and Russia’s “heinous war against Ukraine.”
“Leaders did not heed the Doomsday Clock warnings in 2020,” Ban claimed. “We all continue to pay the price. In 2023 it is vital for the good of all that they act.
The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, also highlighted the change in the hands of the clock. In a statement, its chief executive, Beatrice Fihn, said they are “fed up” with no action being taken following the clock warnings.
“The leaders of the nuclear weapon states must urgently negotiate nuclear disarmament, and the G7 meeting in Hiroshima in May 2023 It’s the perfect place to outline that plan,” Fihn said.
“We do not predict the future, we make a diagnosis”
On Twitter the news received some skeptical comments, questioning the usefulness of the watch or its reliability. “We do not predict the future,” the panel notes on its website, anticipating criticism. The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists “is something like a doctor making a diagnosis. We look at the data the way doctors look at lab tests and X-rays, and we also take into account factors that are harder to quantify, just like doctors do when talking to patients and family members.”
“Then we arrive at a sentence that summarizes what could happen if leaders and citizens do not act to cure diseases,” the scientists explain.
In its beginnings, in 1947, after World War II, it was seven minutes to midnight. The clock reached 17 minutes to doomsday after the Cold War in 1991.
The Bulletin was founded in 1945 by Albert Einstein, J. Robert Oppenheimer, and other scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project that produced the first nuclear weapons.