Doomsday Clock remains at 90 seconds to midnight amid wars in Gaza, Ukraine
- Ominous trends continue to point toward catastrophe, including a three-way nuclear race shaping up between China, Russia and the US
- Climate change is also a factor, with the world suffering its hottest year on record in 2023
Atomic scientists on Tuesday kept their “Doomsday Clock” set as close to midnight as ever before, citing Russia’s actions on nuclear weapons amid its invasion of Ukraine, nuclear-armed Israel’s Gaza war and worsening climate change as factors driving the risk of global catastrophe.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, as they did last year, set the clock at 90 seconds to midnight – the theoretical point of annihilation.
Scientists set the clock based on “existential” risks to Earth and its people: nuclear threats, climate change and disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence and new biotechnology.
“Conflict hotspots around the world carry the threat of nuclear escalation, climate change is already causing death and destruction, and disruptive technologies like AI and biological research advance faster than their safeguards,” said Rachel Bronson, the Bulletin’s president and CEO, adding that keeping the clock unchanged from the prior year is “not an indication that the world is stable”.
The Chicago-based non-profit group created the clock in 1947 during the Cold War tensions that followed World War II to warn the public about how close humankind was to destroying the world.