Doomsday Clock moves closer to midnight

A group of international scientists and politicians moved the symbolic Doomsday Clock 10 seconds closer to midnight. As of now, the clock stands at 23 hours, 58 minutes and 30 seconds. The clock has never been so close to midnight in its 76-year existence. That time symbolises the human-induced end of humanity.

The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists in Chicago announced this. The main reason for advancing the clock further is the increasing dangers caused by the war in Ukraine. In the commentary, committee members said, "Ukraine's sovereignty and the broader European security arrangements that have largely held up since the end of World War II are at stake."

Also, Russia's war against Ukraine "has raised profound questions about how states interact with each other. This erodes the international norms of behaviour that underpin successful responses to various global risks."

Climate change

Russia's "barely veiled threats to use nuclear weapons remind the world that escalation of the conflict - accidental, deliberate or miscalculated - is a terrible risk. The likelihood of the conflict spinning out of control remains high," the committee writes.

Besides war and nuclear danger, climate change, biological hazards such as pandemics, disruptive technologies and the spread of false information to spread dangerous untruths are major threats to humanity.

Atomic

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists was founded in 1945 by Albert Einstein and scientists working on the 'Manhattan Project', which produced the first atomic bomb. The clock was devised by the University of Chicago in 1947. Then, the clock was set at seven minutes to 12. The main threat at the time was an all-out nuclear war. The last time the clock was moved forward was in 2019. Then the hand moved 20 seconds closer to midnight to 23.58 and 20 seconds.

The world was safest in 1991, at the end of the Cold War when the clock stood at 17 minutes to midnight.