Atomic scientists keep ‘Doomsday Clock’ as close to midnight as ever
Atomic scientists kept their “Doomsday Clock” set at 90 seconds to midnight, citing threats from multiple wars, nuclear weapons and climate change as factors.
WASHINGTON — Atomic scientists on Tuesday kept their “Doomsday Clock” set as close to midnight as ever before, citing Russia’s actions on nuclear weapons amid its invasion of Ukraine, nuclear-armed Israel’s Gaza war and worsening climate change as factors driving the risk of global catastrophe.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, as they did last year, set the clock at 90 seconds to midnight — the theoretical point of annihilation. Scientists set the clock based on “existential” risks to Earth and its people: nuclear threat, climate change, and disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence and new biotechnology.
“Conflict hot spots around the world carry the threat of nuclear escalation, climate change is already causing death and destruction, and disruptive technologies like AI and biological research advance faster than their safeguards,” Rachel Bronson, the bulletin’s president and CEO, told Reuters, adding that keeping unchanged from the prior year is “not an indication that the world is stable.”
A staffer shows the location of the minute hand on the "Doomsday Clock, in Washington on Tuesday. Jacquelyn Martin / APThe Chicago-based nonprofit created the clock in 1947 to warn the public about how close humankind is to destroying the world.
Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine, set to reach its second anniversary next month, has escalated tensions with the West to their most dangerous levels since the Cold War.
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