We are now expressing how close the world is to catastrophe in seconds – not hours, or even minutes. In its press release last year, the Bulletin announced that it had taken the drastic step of setting the ‘Doomsday Clock’ at the ‘100 seconds from midnight’ position due to the prevailing climate conditions, “cyber-based disinformation” and nuclear risk. Why was the clock set at ‘100 seconds from midnight’ in the first place? The furthest it has been is 17 minutes after the end of the Cold War in 1991. The clock was originally set to seven minutes to midnight and has since moved closer or further away from the dreaded 12 o’clock position. The reason the scientists selected a clock to convey the metaphor is twofold - they wanted to use the imagery of an apocalypse (midnight) as well as the “contemporary idiom of a nuclear explosion” (countdown to zero) to illustrate the threats to humanity. Over the years, they have included other existential threats, such as climate change and disruptive technologies like artificial intelligence. When it was first created in 1947, the hands of the clock were placed based on the threat posed by nuclear weapons, which the scientists then perceived to be the greatest threat to humanity. It is set annually by a panel of scientists, including 13 Nobel laureates, based on the threats - old and new - that the world faced in that year. “And actions do speak louder than words, and we wanted to send a message that things are not going in the right direction.The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, founded by Albert Einstein and students from the University of Chicago in 1945, created the ‘Doomsday Clock’ as a symbol to represent how close the world is to a possible apocalypse. “It’s only six days into the new administration,' said Lawrence Krauss, chairman of the group’s board of sponsors. The worldwide nuclear arsenal is about 15,000 warheads, with Russia and the US each holding about 5,000. Israel is also believed to have such weapons. “We will outmatch them at every pass and outlast them all.'įive nations-the US, Russia, China, France, and the United Kingdom-are formally recognized nuclear states, though India, Pakistan, and North Korea have admitted to possessing them. “Let it be an arms race,' Trump said in late December. After winning the election, Trump said the US “must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes.' Trump has also said other countries should consider arming themselves with nuclear weapons. Trump hasn’t displayed the same reticence around using nuclear weapons as his predecessors. The last time the clock was as close to calamity was during the Cold War tensions of the mid-1980s. The safest period was from 1991 to 1994, when the clock was 17 minutes from midnight. The Doomsday Clock was set at 2 minutes to midnight in 1953 after the Soviet Union tested its first hydrogen bomb, nine months after the first US test of such a device.

With an allusion to one Trump aide’s term for falsehoods about inaugural attendance, CIA relations, and voting fraud, David Titley, a climate science expert from Pennsylvania State University and bulletin member, said “alternative facts will not make the challenge of climate change magically go away.' Last year was the warmest on record, while 16 of the planet’s 17 hottest years on record have come to pass since 2001. Putting aside the risk of sudden global annihilation, the scientists see a slower doom that may also befall us. The modernization and enlargement of nuclear arsenals in both countries is cause for concern, as is the tension between India and Pakistan, both of which possess nuclear weapons. The Bulletin said the decision to change the clock this year came from what it views as “new' political rhetoric from both the US and Russia regarding international conflict and the role of science. Their idea was to create a symbol to help the public understand the various threats mankind has foisted upon itself.

The Doomsday Clock was first set at 3 minutes to midnight in 1949, two years after it was established by Manhattan Project scientists who built the world’s first atomic bomb. “In short, even though he has just now taken office, the president’s intemperate statements, lack of openness to expert advice, and questionable cabinet nominations have already made a bad international security situation worse.' And his nominees to head the Energy Department and the Environmental Protection Agency dispute the basics of climate science,' the group said. He has shown a troubling propensity to discount or outright reject expert advice related to international security, including the conclusions of intelligence experts. “He has made ill-considered comments about expanding the US nuclear arsenal. The group went on to squarely blame Trump for the heightened risk of apocalypse.

3 minutes to midnight doomsday clock