Doomsday Clock reset: World now faces ‘unprecedented danger’

[Berean]

Doomsday Clock reset: World now faces ‘unprecedented danger’

By Adriana Diaz

January 24, 2023 11:23am Updated


Get your apocalypse survival kit ready: The world is the closest to the end of days as it has ever been, scientists warn.



The symbolic Doomsday Clock — designed by scientists to measure how close the world is to an apocalypse — has been reset to 90 seconds to midnight.



This is the closest the clock has ever been set to midnight in the 76 years since its creation.



“We are living in a time of unprecedented danger, and the Doomsday Clock time reflects that reality,” Rachel Bronson, PhD, president and CEO of Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists said in the announcement on Tuesday.



“Ninety seconds to midnight is the closest the Clock has ever been set to midnight, and it’s a decision our experts do not take lightly. The US government, its NATO allies and Ukraine have a multitude of channels for dialogue; we urge leaders to explore all of them to their fullest ability to turn back the Clock.”



The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists organization was founded in 1945 by Albert Einstein and other scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project, which produced the first nuclear weapons during the Second World War.



Members of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Siegfried S. Hecker, Daniel Holz, Sharon Squassoni, Mary Robinson and Elbegdorj Tsakhia

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists warned that “we are living in a time of unprecedented danger.”

Getty Images

They created the first Doomsday Clock during the Cold War in 1947 as a warning of the dangers of nuclear war. It was originally set to seven minutes before midnight and has previously been moved 24 times — backward 17 times and forward seven times.



In 2020, it first moved to 100 seconds before midnight — the most alarming countdown at the time — where it remained until this year.




The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which includes 10 Nobel laureates, chose to move the clock closer to midnight this year “due largely but not exclusively” to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and their threats of nuclear war.



“Russia’s war on Ukraine has raised profound questions about how states interact, eroding norms of international conduct that underpin successful responses to a variety of global risks,” the experts warned.



The scientists also noted the “continuing threats posed by the climate crisis and the breakdown of global norms and institutions needed to mitigate risks associated with advancing technologies and biological threats such as COVID-19.”


Mary Robinson, Chair of the Elders and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, warned that “the Doomsday Clock is sounding an alarm for the whole of humanity. We are on the brink of a precipice. But our leaders are not acting at sufficient speed or scale to secure a peaceful and liveable planet.”



Humanity was supposedly the safest in 1991 when the hands were furthest from midnight, set at 17 minutes until the apocalypse, as the United States and the Soviet Union signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty — ending the Cold War and reducing the threat of nuclear war.



“The science is clear, but the political will is lacking,” Robinson said insisting that “leaders need a crisis mindset” if the world is to “avert catastrophe.”


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