The world reaches closest to point of annihilation: Doomsday Clock

On Tuesday, the ‘Doomsday Clock’ came closest to the physical end of the world. Nuclear experts set the ‘Doomsday Clock’ barely 90 seconds before midnight, citing nuclear war, disease, and climate change as determining variables amid geopolitical uncertainty caused by the continuing Russia-Ukraine war.

What exactly is the Doomsday Clock?

The ‘Doomsday Clock’ was designed by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists in Chicago. It demonstrates how close humanity has gone to extinction.

It shifted its ‘time’ in 2023 to 90 seconds before midnight, which is 10 seconds closer than the previous three years.

What does the Doomsday Clock midnight mean?

This clock’s midnight represents the theorized point of destruction.

The hands of the clock are moved closer or further away from midnight based on scientists’ assessments of existential risks at a given time.

The current crisis in Ukraine, exacerbated by Russian actions, has brought the globe closer to potential destruction.

“Russia’s thinly veiled threats to use nuclear weapons remind the world that escalation of the conflict by accident, intention, or miscalculation is a terrible risk. The possibilities that the conflict could spin out of anyone’s control remains high,” Rachel Bronson, the bulletin’s president, and CEO told a news conference in Washington on Tuesday.

The bulletin, a non-profit organization based in Chicago, adjusts the clock’s time on an annual basis based on facts on catastrophic hazards to the world and humanity.

Politics, weaponry, technology, climate change, and pandemics are among the apocalyptic threats depicted by the clock.

Since 2020, the clock had been set to 100 seconds to midnight, which was already the closest it had ever been to midnight.

According to the board, the crisis in Ukraine has significantly increased the potential of biological weapons being used if the conflict continues.

“The continuing stream of disinformation about bioweapons’ laboratories in Ukraine raises concerns that Russia itself may be thinking of deploying such weapons,” Bronson said.

The clock began ticking at seven minutes to midnight in 1947

Sivan Kartha, a bulletin board member and scientist at the Stockholm Environmental Institute, cited economic uncertainty and climate change as grounds for the world’s theoretical near-extinction.

“Global carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels, after having rebounded from the COVID economic decline to an all-time high in 2021, continue to rise in 2022 and hit another record high… With emissions still rising, weather extremes continue, and were even more clearly attributable to climate change,” Kartha said.

The clock was 17 minutes from “doomsday” in 1991 when the Cold War ended and the United States and Soviet Union reached a treaty significantly reducing both countries’ nuclear arsenals.