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The Doomsday Clock has inched 10 seconds closer to midnight – the closest it has ever been to a global catastrophe.
But what does that actually mean?
Although only a metaphor for the dangers facing humanity, the clock is updated by those in the know about a range of risks.
The countdown is agreed on by experts at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
This year the clock has moved forward due to the “mounting dangers of the war in Ukraine“.
With the increase in nuclear threat, political tensions, climate change and illnesses, experts believe that this could be a defining moment in history.
The latest update describes 2023 as “a time of unprecedented danger”.
What is the Doomsday Clock and how is it set?
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists – the creators of the clock – first launched the initiative in response to the threat of nuclear war in the 1940s.
After the US dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of the Second World War, members of the Bulletin saw a need to help the public understand the scale of the nuclear threat to the existence of humanity.
To this day, the Bulletin’s science and security board, made up of nuclear and climate experts, set the time for the clock. The board has done this since 1973, when it took over from Eugene Rabinowitch, Bulletin editor and disarmament campaigner.
The symbolism of the Doomsday Clock is powerful. If it were to strike midnight, it would mark the end of time and the theoretical point of annihilation for the human race.
The clock moves closer or further away from midnight based on how the experts on the board, plus academic colleagues and the Bulletin’s sponsors – which include 13 Nobel laureates – read threats at a particular time around the globe.
Read more:
Doomsday Clock moves closer to midnight as Ukraine war rages
Ukraine war – follow our latest coverage
What have scientists said?
The latest update to the clock is the most dire since its inception.
In a statement released by the…
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