The clock remained at 100 seconds till its latest announcement in 2023, bringing humanity 10 seconds closer to a "global catastrophe", in the view of some scientists at least. In 2020, scientists moved the hands of the clock forward to 100 seconds to midnight after the breakout of COVID-19. In 1995 the clock was at 14 minutes to midnight, the safest reading in its history.Īnd there were "positive strides" in some years, such as the Paris climate agreement.Įver since 1998, however, the hands of the clock have been at less than 10 minutes to midnight. There have been more reassuring years, though. Since then it has been ticking away as political, nuclear and climate changes continued over the years, with experts revising the time up and down - mostly closer to midnight and its metaphor for total disaster. When it first began in 1947, the clock was set at seven minutes to midnight.Īrtist Martyl Langsdorf came up with the idea of the clock and set the time to symbolise the dangers of nuclear confrontation, on the front cover of the Bulletin. Another Twitter user, said the new time made sense to him as he was "increasingly concerned" about global security. However, others were more supportive of the concept. Twitter Due to your consent preferences, you’re not able to view this. The scientists said the war has "increased the risk of nuclear weapons use, raised the spectre of biological and chemical weapons use, hamstrung the world's response to climate change, and hampered international efforts to deal with other global concerns". The statement added: "The possibility that the conflict could spin out of anyone's control remains high." In a statement released by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists on Tuesday, its experts said: " Russia's thinly veiled threats to use nuclear weapons remind the world that escalation of the conflict by accident, intention, or miscalculation is a terrible risk." The latest update to the clock is the most dire since its inception. The clock moves closer or further away from midnight based on how the experts on the board, plus academic colleagues and the Bulletin's sponsors - which include 13 Nobel laureates - read threats at a particular time around the globe.ĭoomsday Clock moves closer to midnight as Ukraine war rages If it were to strike midnight, it would mark the end of time and the theoretical point of annihilation for the human race. The symbolism of the Doomsday Clock is powerful. The board has done this since 1973, when it took over from Eugene Rabinowitch, Bulletin editor and disarmament campaigner. It has been set backward and forward 25 times since then, the smallest-ever number of minutes to midnight. To this day, the Bulletin's science and security board, made up of nuclear and climate experts, set the time for the clock. The Doomsday Clocks original setting in 1947 was seven minutes to midnight. After the US dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of the Second World War, members of the Bulletin saw a need to help the public understand the scale of the nuclear threat to the existence of humanity.
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