The Doomsday Clock is a symbolic timepiece showing how close the world is to ending. Midnight marks the theoretical point of annihilation. Apocalyptic threats could arise from political tensions, weapons, technology, climate change or pandemic illness.
For 2021 and 2022, the clock's hands were set at 100 seconds to midnight. Since this time-keeping exercise began in 1947, the announcement on Jan. 24, 2023 represents the closest the clock has ever been to midnight — a clear wake-up call.
During the COVID lockdowns in 2020, the world felt so dystopian, that the Doomsday Clock was set to 100 seconds to midnight—the closest to a global apocalypse since the metaphoric clock came into existence more than seven decades ago.
But it may be helpful to remember, Wellerstein adds, that the Doomsday Clock is not a scientific instrument or even an institution. It's a metaphor and a communication tool. One reasonable measure of success might simply be whether people talk about it when the time changes, and the issues behind that change.
It is 90 seconds to midnight.
The "100 seconds to midnight" setting remained unchanged in 2021 and 2022. On January 24, 2023, the Clock was moved to 90 seconds (1 minute, 30 seconds) before midnight, meaning that the Clock's current setting is the closest it has ever been to midnight since its inception in 1947.
The "Doomsday Clock," created by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists to illustrate how close humanity has come to the end of the world, moved its "time" in 2023 to 90 seconds to midnight, 10 seconds closer than it has been for the past three years. Midnight on this clock marks the theoretical point of annihilation.
In other words, Doomsday is always the last day of February. In normal years, Doomsday is February 28th, and in leap years, Doomsday is February 29th. In 2023, which is not a leap year, the last day of February is Tuesday the 28th.
“It's a judgment among experts about whether humanity is safer or at greater risk” compared with the clock's setting in previous years. The clock's hands can move backwards, forwards or stay the same. They were farthest from midnight—a record 17 minutes—in 1991, a decision informed by post-Cold War optimism.
The clock hands are set by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, a group formed by Manhattan Project scientists at the University of Chicago who helped build the atomic bomb but protested using it against people. The time of the clock is currently 90 seconds to midnight.
The Doomsday Clock is a symbolic timepiece showing how close the world is to ending. Midnight marks the theoretical point of annihilation. Apocalyptic threats could arise from political tensions, weapons, technology, climate change or pandemic illness.
Scientists revealed on Tuesday that the "Doomsday Clock" has been moved up to 90 seconds before midnight -- the closest humanity has ever been to armageddon.
Martyl set the original Clock at seven minutes to midnight because, she said, “it looked good to my eye.” In the early days, Bulletin Editor Eugene Rabinowitch decided whether the hand should be moved.
No matter the chances of nuclear war breaking out between the United States and Russia, there's a “0.0% chance” that Russia would survive the attack, according to Schwartz. This makes the actual possibility of nuclear war look pretty slim, no matter what Putin says.
What is the “Doomsday Clock?” The “Doomsday Clock,” created in 1947, is an “international symbol of the world's vulnerability to catastrophe” as well as a countdown to when the “man-made threats to human existence” like nuclear weapons, the fossil fuel industry and technology, are likely to tip us over the edge.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists set the clock at 90 seconds to midnight on Tuesday, citing the war in Ukraine as well as climate change, online disinformation and other threats. Humanity is closer than ever to the end of the world.
Doomsday Clock moves closest to apocalypse than ever before, at 90 seconds to midnight. Noting 'we are living in a time of unprecedented danger,' The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moved the hands of the Doomsday Clock to 90 seconds to midnight—the closest it's ever been to apocalypse in its 75-plus-year history.
The Bulletin has reset the minute hand on the Doomsday Clock 25 times since its debut in 1947, most recently in 2023 when we moved it from 100 seconds to midnight to 90 seconds to midnight. Every time it is reset, we're flooded with questions about the internationally recognized symbol.
It takes advantage of each year having a certain day of the week upon which certain easy-to-remember dates, called the doomsdays, fall; for example, the last day of February, 4/4, 6/6, 8/8, 10/10, and 12/12 all occur on the same day of the week in any year.
The Odd+11 Method
Instead, there are 2 odd/even checks and conditional additions of 11. Here is an outline of the method: 1) If the input year x is an odd number, add 11 to it. Otherwise, do not add anything 2) Divide the result by 2 3) If the result is an odd number, add 11 to it.
Surface temperatures would be reduced for more than 25 years, due to thermal inertia and albedo effects in the ocean and expanded sea ice. The combined cooling and enhanced UV would put significant pressures on global food supplies and could trigger a global nuclear famine.
Russia possesses a total of 5,889 nuclear warheads as of 2023, the largest stockpile of nuclear warheads in the world; the second-largest stockpile is the United States' 5,428 warheads. Russia's deployed missiles (those actually ready to be launched) number about 1,674, second to the United States' 1,770.
A single nuclear weapon can destroy a city and kill most of its people. Several nuclear explosions over modern cities would kill tens of millions of people. Casualties from a major nuclear war between the US and Russia would reach hundreds of millions.
90 seconds to midnight is the closest the Clock has ever been set to midnight, and it's a decision our experts do not take lightly.