The technologies developed by humanity and the fights with each other continue to pave the way for our own end. In order to draw attention to these threats, the symbolic “Doomsday Clock”, which has been determined by various agendas since 1947, was changed to break a record the other day.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists team, which determined the time, updated the Doomsday Clock to be 90 seconds before midnight. The proximity to midnight represents how close we are as humanity to self-destruction.
Why has humanity come so close to its end?
The clock, which was last fixed at 100 seconds in 2020, was updated on January 24 due to the war in Ukraine. The shared statement included the following statements:
“This year, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Science and Safety Board is putting the hands of the Doomsday Clock forward, in large part (if not exclusively) due to the escalating dangers of war in Ukraine. The clock is now fixed at 90 seconds to midnight – the closest we’ve ever been to global catastrophe.”
“War is not just nuclear danger”
“The effects of war are not limited to the escalation of nuclear danger. It also undermines global efforts to combat climate change. Countries dependent on Russian oil and gas have sought to diversify their supplies and suppliers, and this has led to the rise of precisely such investments when they should have contracted.”
All updates throughout the Doomsday Clock history and why:
- 1947 – 7 minutes to midnight (Cold war)
- 1949 – 3 minutes to midnight (Cold war, Soviet Union’s atomic bomb test)
- 1953 – 2 minutes to midnight (US and Soviet Union thermonuclear bomb tests)
- 1960 – 7 minutes to midnight (End of an era, softening of relations between the Western and Eastern blocs after the death of Stalin)
- 1963 – 12 minutes to midnight (Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in Atmosphere, Space and Underwater)
- 1968 – 7 minutes to midnight (US entry into Vietnam War, India-Pakistan war begins, France and China acquire nuclear weapons)
- 1969 – 10 minutes to midnight (including countries such as India, Pakistan, and Israel in the 1963 agreement)
- 1972 – 12 minutes to midnight (US and Soviet Union Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and Strategic Arms Limitation Talks)
- 1974 – 9 minutes to midnight (India’s nuclear device test, US and Soviet modernization of MIRV vehicles)
- 1980 – 7 minutes to midnight (Soviet-Afghan war begins)
- 1981 – 4 minutes to midnight (Soviet-Afghan war intensification, Iran-Iraq war, China’s atmospheric nuclear warhead test)
- 1984 – 3 minutes to midnight (stretching relations between the US and the Soviets, increasing US weapons in Europe)
- 1988 – 6 minutes to midnight (US and Soviet Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Agreement)
- 1990 – 10 minutes to midnight (fall of the Berlin Wall)
- 1991 – 17 minutes to midnight (US and Soviet Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty)
- 1995 – 14 minutes to midnight (Cold war does not end, military spending continues)
- 1998 – 9 minutes to midnight (India and Pakistan’s weapon bomb tests, strained relations between the USA and Russia)
- 2002 – 7 minutes to midnight (Failure to curb global nuclear proliferation, US rejecting treaties and withdrawing from Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty of 1972)
- 2007 – 5 minutes to midnight (North Korea’s nuclear weapons test in October 2006, Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons, the number of nuclear weapons in the USA and Russia exceeds 26,000, global climate change is among the greatest dangers)
- 2010 – 6 minutes to midnight (Worldwide efforts to reduce nuclear weapons, United Nations countries signing an agreement against global warming in 2009)
- 2012 – 5 minutes to midnight (Political figures do not act against global climate change, nuclear weapons accumulation)
- 2015 – 3 minutes to midnight (Continuing inaction on global climate change, US and Russia modernizing their nuclear weapons)
- 2017 – 2.5 minutes to midnight (Donald Trump’s nuclear weapons statements, US and Russia’s continued nuclear modernization, Trump administration’s disbelief in climate change)
- 2018 – 2 minutes to midnight (World leaders’ failure to fight nuclear war and climate change, US withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement, continued nuclear modernization of the US and Russia, information wars negatively triggering areas such as synthetic biology, artificial intelligence and cyber warfare )
- 2020 – 100 seconds to midnight (Failure of world leaders to combat nuclear war and climate change, ending of Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Agreement between USA and Russia)
- 2023 – 90 seconds to midnight (Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, escalation of nuclear weapons tensions, North Korea’s ballistic missile tests, biohazards like COVID-19, climate crisis continuing to present dangers)
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