THE DOOMSDAY CLOCK has been set to 100 seconds to midnight for the third year in a row.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which is responsible for the clock, has kept its hands at 100 seconds to midnight, where it been since 2020.
It reflects the scientists’ view that the world is no safer than it was this time last year.
The countdown is a metaphor for global apocalypse and considers the propability of emerging threats like climate change and advances in artificial intelligence and biotechnology.
Announcing the new position, CEO Dr Rachel Bronson said experts look at two questions in judging the position for the clock: “Is humanity safer or at greater risk this year than compared last year? Is humanity safer or at greater risk this yearcompared to the 75 years we’ve been asking the question?”
Dr Bronson said the countdown “represents the judgement of leading science and security experts of the threat to human existence, with a focus on manmade threats, nuclear risks, climate change, and new disruptive technologies.”
“We believe that because humans created these threats, we can reduce them, but doing so is not easy and has never been so.”
The Doomsday Clock continues to hover dangerously, reminding us how much work is needed to ensure a safer and healthier planet. We must continue to push the hands on the clock away from midnight
Professor of Physics at the University of Oxford Raymond Pierrehumbert pointed to a “staggering onslought of climate disasters” in the last year.
He said a key question is whether countries will deliver on the climate commitments they have promised.
“The situation is dire but all is not lost. There is still time to get this boat unstuck and moving towards net zero,” he said.
“But the longer we delay the worse things are going to get.”
Last year, the Doomsday Clock was set at 100 seconds, the closest to midnight it had ever been, for a second year running in light of risks like the Covid-19 pandemic, the climate crisis, and the 6 January insurrection in the United States.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists established the clock in 1947, starting at seven minutes to midnight.
In 1953, when the US and USSR tested hydrogen bombs, the clock was at two minutes to midnight. A decade later, the countries signed the Partial Test Ban Treaty and the clock moved to 12 minutes to midnight.
The furthest it has ever been from midnight was 17 minutes in 1991.
With reporting by Press Association
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