Today: 'Doomsday Clock' Moves Closer to Midnight

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The annual, and long-running, ceremony was held this morning announcing the current status of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ famous Doomsday Clock. Would it move closer to midnight, a bit back, or stand pat? Sadly, it gained another four seconds closer to midnight, now resting at just 85 seconds before our End.

The clock is now the closest to midnight since its introduction in 1947.

"The Doomsday Clock’s message cannot be clearer," Alexandra Bell, president and CEO, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, said. "Catastrophic risks are on the rise, cooperation is on the decline, and we are running out of time. Change is both necessary and possible, but the global community must demand swift action from their leaders."

Here’s the announcement program:

Below an excerpt from the Bulletin assessment:

A year ago, we warned that the world was perilously close to global disaster and that any delay in reversing course increased the probability of catastrophe. Rather than heed this warning, Russia, China, the United States, and other major countries have instead become increasingly aggressive, adversarial, and nationalistic.

Hard-won global understandings are collapsing, accelerating a winner-takes-all great power competition and undermining the international cooperation critical to reducing the risks of nuclear war, climate change, the misuse of biotechnology, the potential threat of artificial intelligence, and other apocalyptic dangers. Far too many leaders have grown complacent and indifferent, in many cases adopting rhetoric and policies that accelerate rather than mitigate these existential risks.

Because of this failure of leadership, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ Science and Security Board today sets the Doomsday Clock at 85 seconds to midnight, the closest it has ever been to catastrophe.

Go to their site for more.