Doomsday Clock kept closest to catastrophe on Mideast, Ukraine conflicts
This screenshot from a livestream by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists on Jan. 23, 2024, shows the symbolic Doomsday Clock with its hands positioned at 90 seconds to midnight. (Kyodo)
A group of atomic scientists on Tuesday again set the hands of the symbolic Doomsday Clock at 90 seconds to midnight, the closest ever to a global catastrophe, citing continued uncertainty over conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East among other factors.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists also warned of the threats posed by climate change, which led Earth to experience the hottest year on record in 2023, and the advance of generative artificial intelligence it said could magnify disinformation and hinder efforts to solve larger existential challenges.
“Our decision should not be taken as a sign that the international security situation has eased,” the group said in a statement released in the annual update of the clock, created in 1974, which indicates a symbolic estimate of human proximity to self-caused annihilation.
“Instead, leaders and citizens around the world should take this statement as a stark warning and respond urgently, as if today were the most dangerous moment in modern history,” it said.
Last year, the group moved the hands of the clock forward by 10 seconds after keeping them at a position of 100 seconds to midnight for three consecutive years through 2022.
The clock, originally set at seven minutes to midnight, which represents Armageddon, went as far away as 17 minutes in 1991 after the end of the Cold War. But the time has been measured in seconds rather than minutes over the past few years, mirroring the urgency of the moment.
