Doomsday Clock and "nuclear midnight". What you need to know

The hands of the Doomsday Clock, which symbolizes the threat of global catastrophe, have been moved one second closer to midnight. They now read 23:58:31. So close to midnight - the symbol of global nuclear catastrophe - the hands of the clock have never been so close before. Why the forecasts worsened and what the dial means - in the material "Izvestia".

What is the "Doomsday Clock"

- Doomsday Clock - a project of the magazine "Bulletin of Atomic Scientists", which has existed since 1947. Every year, the magazine's board of directors, with the participation of experts and scientists, decides whether to move the hands or leave them in place. Midnight on the symbolic dial signifies the moment when humans will make the Earth uninhabitable.

- The hands were originally set at 23:53. The greatest distance from midnight (23:43) was recorded after the end of the Cold War. In 1991, the administration of U.S. President George H.W. Bush - Sr. signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with the Soviet Union.

- The hands of the Doomsday Clock are set each year by experts from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists' Science and Security Board in consultation with the Board of Sponsors, which was established by Albert Einstein in December 1948, when J. Robert Oppenheimer, one of the creators of the atomic bomb, became its first chairman. The board now includes Nobel Prize winners, many of whom are specialists in physics, physiology or medicine.

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- "The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists was founded by a group of scientists working on the Manhattan Project (code name for the work on the atomic bomb during World War II). The organization was originally conceived to measure nuclear threats, but in 2007 it decided to include climate change in its calculations.

How time has changed on the clock

- The magazine has been assessing the threat of the "end of the world" since 1947 and decides each year whether or not to move the hands. It is now 89 seconds to midnight instead of the previous 90 seconds. This is a record short time before the global catastrophe - in all 78 years since the clock was symbolically wound up.

- The magazine's experts explained that they moved the clock closer to midnight on January 28, 2025, because they do not see enough positive progress in addressing global challenges, including nuclear risk, climate change, biological threats and advances in "disruptive technologies" such as artificial intelligence. This year, infectious diseases and ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East were also named as factors negatively affecting the position of the hands.

- As experts from the Bulletin's Science Board explain, countries with nuclear weapons are increasing the size of their arsenals, investing hundreds of billions of dollars in something that could destroy civilization. At the same time, it is the United States, China and Russia that are responsible for pulling the world back from the brink.

- The development of artificial intelligence, biotechnology and space technology is now essential for all mankind. Against this backdrop, however, global threats are greatly exacerbated by the spread of disinformation, fakes and conspiracy theories that are disrupting the communications ecosystem and increasingly blurring the line between truth and falsehood.

- In 2023, against the backdrop of the conflict in Ukraine, increased nuclear escalation of the hands, as well as Israel's war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip and the climate crisis, the hands of the clocks moved 10 seconds at once to 23:58.30, a record close to midnight. Before that, they had remained at 100 seconds for several years in a row. In 2024, the hands of the clock did not move.

What the clock was made for

- The Doomsday Clock was created in a symbolic attempt to gauge how close humanity is to destroying the world. Midnight signifies the moment when the Earth will become uninhabitable due to the results of human activity. This project is not meant to measure existential threats or the time left until the apocalypse, but rather to initiate discussions on complex topics affecting the entire global population.

- The Doomsday Clock is periodically criticized. One major flaw is the conflation of different types of risk that have different characteristics and evolve on different time scales. The project is also regularly reproached for lacking clear criteria for analysis. For example, futurologist researcher Anders Sandberg has suggested that talk of the threat of nuclear catastrophe or global warming is artificial, and that pessimistic forecasts not only fail to provide an objective assessment, but are even misleading. However, the clock is still an important rhetorical device that reminds humanity year after year of the precariousness of the current existence on this planet.

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- The clock is actively used in popular culture. The symbol has been referenced in the lyrics of songs by The Clash (track It's 55 minutes past 11), The Who, Iron Maiden (Two Minutes to Midnight), Smashing Pumpkins (Doomsday Clock), and Linkin Park (Minutes to Midnight), as well as being the basis for a comic book series in which Alan Moore's Watchmen characters meet Batman and Superman from the DC universe.

- Experts who move the hands of the Doomsday Clock suggest that everyone discuss the changes on the dial in their social circle - with loved ones, family, friends and coworkers. Such conversations have the power to change the mood of a community from small groups to larger ones. And ultimately, such conversations influence the mood of society and the decisions that politicians make.

- Personal actions can make a difference too. To make a positive impact on climate change in particular, it is suggested that you evaluate your daily habits and consider if there are small changes you can make in your life. Examples include walking or cycling instead of using a car, saving resources when heating the home, buying seasonal and local products instead of imported ones, sorting and reducing food waste, and conserving water.