The iconic-yet-imaginary Doomsday Clock is now two minutes to midnight, signaling that the world is the closest to a hypothetical global catastrophe that it’s been in decades.
Pointing to the challenges of climate change and the growing threat of nuclear war, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists’ Science and Security Board announced publicly Thursday that the clock has moved forward 30 seconds, putting the symbolic Doomsday Clock the closest to midnight it’s been since 1953, when American and Soviet forces began testing thermonuclear weapons.
“World leaders failed to respond effectively to the looming threats of nuclear war and climate change, making the world security situation more dangerous than it was a year ago—and as dangerous as it has been since World War II,” the related statement read, according to multiple reports.
The community of scientists who maintain the Doomsday Clock largely attributed the move toward annihilation to President Donald Trump, who they feel has endangered the world by raising tensions with North Korea, Iran, Russia and China and crippling international efforts to combat climate change. The group called attention to “the decline of U.S. leadership and a related demise of diplomacy under the Trump administration,” as well as his “hyperbolic rhetoric and provocative actions.”
The Doomsday Clock has been in existence since 1947, when the clock was first set at seven minutes to midnight. This particular time was apparently chosen because the artist who designed the clock — Martyl Langsdorf — thought “it looked good” in her eyes. Over the years, it has moved backwards and forwards. The farthest the clock has been from midnight was 17 minutes in 1991, when the U.S. and Russia signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.
Thursday’s shift is the second year in a row the clock has advanced forward 30 seconds.
While some observers put stock in the predictions associated with the Doomsday Clock, which is not an actual forecasting tool, others consider the clock a meaningless measure of a small group’s dissatisfaction with the current political climate. The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists’ Science and Security Board simply regards it as a metaphorical warning.
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