Moreover, because of the rising nuclear threat posed by North Korea and the unsteady state of geopolitical affairs that have gripped the world, the clock was advanced to two minutes before midnight in January 2018. Today, the clock is influenced by the "new abnormal," which is described by the Board as a moment in which "fact is becoming indistinguishable from fiction, undermining our very abilities to develop and apply solutions to the big problems of our time." The new abnormal also includes risks arising from climate change, as well as unpredictable behaviour of leaders like the US President Donald Trump, a blowhard who blusters when unsure what to say, and Kim Jong-un, the intriguing North Korean dictator.Īfter Trump's "Fire and Fury" threat to North Korea in 2017, the Board thought that we are indeed closer to the apocalypse now than at any other time in the history of our civilisation. However, because of the failure to reduce global nuclear weapons and the nonchalant attitude of our leaders toward climate change, the clock was moved forward in 2015 to three minutes before midnight. In January 2012, President Barack Obama's plan to end nuclear proliferation and curb greenhouse gas emissions raised cautious optimism and the clock was moved back to six minutes before midnight. Between 20, the clock see-sawed between 23:53 and 23:55, mainly because of America's withdrawal from the previously signed Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and the uncertainty of Iran's nuclear ambitions. In 1998, testing of nuclear weapons by India and Pakistan, combined with increased military spending throughout the world, prompted the Board to put the clock back within ten minutes of midnight, at 23:51. The halcyon period of 17 minutes to midnight did not last long, though. This was the farthest the clock has ever been from midnight. It was reset to 17 minutes before midnight in 1991 after the Cold War was officially over. ![]() The clock was reset to two minutes before midnight in 1953, when the two superpowers, the USA and Soviet Union, tested hydrogen bombs within a few months of each other.Īfter the superpowers signed the Partial Test Ban Treaty in 1963, which put an end to nuclear weapons tests in the atmosphere, in space and underwater, the clock was moved back to 12 minutes before midnight. ![]() It was initially set at seven minutes before midnight because back then, there was only one major threat to humanity: nuclear war. The bulletin explained that “unchecked climate change, global nuclear weapons modernisations and outsized nuclear weapons arsenals posed an extraordinary and undeniable threat to the continued existence of humanity”.Since its inception, the clock has moved backwards and forwards 23 times-from 17 minutes to two minutes before midnight. 2015 – 3 minutes to midnight: This update represented the first time other global threats featured so prominently in the Doomsday Clock’s history.1991 – 17 minutes to midnight: The end of the Cold War.1984 – 3 minutes to midnight: The height of the Cold War.1963 – 12 minutes to midnight: Atmospheric nuclear testing ended.1953 – 2 minutes to midnight: America created the hydrogen bomb.1949 – 3 minutes to midnight: The clock moved closer to midnight as the Soviet Union tested its first nuclear device.“Miscellaneous” threats including cyber warfare and AI.The global threats taken into consideration in the modern-day Doomsday Clock include ![]() ![]() They would often produce a bulletin providing updates about the nuclear weaponry and the clock design feature on the front cover of the first edition. The Doomsday Clock was the brainchild of the atomic scientists involved with the Manhattan Project who could see, or who understood, first-hand how devastating nuclear weapons could potentially be. The closer the Doomsday Clock moves to midnight, the more real the threat of an apocalyptic event. At its most simple, midnight on the clock represents a nuclear disaster or apocalyptic event. The Doomsday Clock was devised by the board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists in 1947 in response to the increasing threat of nuclear war at the end of World War II. The board of scientists, which includes 15 Nobel laureates from the field of both arts and sciences, has been meeting regularly to discuss the Doomsday Clock’s position ever since it was set up in 1947 following concerns over the founders’ nuclear research. The last time the Doomsday Clock was two minutes to midnight was in 1953, when the nuclear hydrogen bomb was tested. “The nations of the world will have to significantly decrease their greenhouse gas emissions to keep climate risks manageable, and so far the global response has fallen far short of meeting this challenge.” “On the climate change front, the danger may seem less immediate, but avoiding catastrophic temperature increases in the long run requires urgent attention now,” they wrote.
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