There have been more reassuring years, though. Since then it has been ticking away as political, nuclear and climate changes continued over the years, with experts revising the time up and down - mostly closer to midnight and its metaphor for total disaster. When it first began in 1947, the clock was set at seven minutes to midnight.Īrtist Martyl Langsdorf came up with the idea of the clock and set the time to symbolise the dangers of nuclear confrontation, on the front cover of the Bulletin. "In this time of unprecedented global danger, concerted action is required, and every second counts." The Bulletin's warning continued: "The invasion and annexation of Ukrainian territory have also violated international norms in ways that may embolden others to take actions that challenge previous understandings and threaten stability. Image: The Russia-Ukraine war has moved the Doomsday Clock closer to midnight The scientists said the war has "increased the risk of nuclear weapons use, raised the spectre of biological and chemical weapons use, hamstrung the world's response to climate change, and hampered international efforts to deal with other global concerns". "The possibility that the conflict could spin out of anyone's control remains high." The 2023 update to the clock was the most dire since its conception.Īnnouncing the update, the board said: "Russia's thinly veiled threats to use nuclear weapons remind the world that escalation of the conflict by accident, intention, or miscalculation is a terrible risk. Where you should head to survive an apocalypse The clock moves closer to 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 the threats facing the world.ĭoomsday Clock moves closer to midnight as Ukraine war rages The board has done this since 1973, when it took over from Eugene Rabinowitch, Bulletin editor and disarmament campaigner. To this day, the Bulletin's science and security board, made up of nuclear and climate experts, set the time for the clock. 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.
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