North Korea conducted two underground nuclear tests last year, and claims it is read to test an intercontinental ballistic missile. and Russia-which together possess more than 90 percent of the world’s atomic weapons-have been at loggerheads over Ukraine, Syria and the alleged Russian hacking of the U.S. “We want to send a message that things are not going in the right direction.” “It is now only six or seven days of the Administration, and actions speak louder than words,” said Krauss. must “greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its sense regarding nukes”-it was too early to know exactly what he would do as President. Moving the Clock 30 seconds, rather than a full minute or more, was a first as well, meant to reflect the fact that while Trump’s words on the campaign trail raised the specter of a renewed arms race-Trump tweeted in December that the U.S. “There are a slate of things that we need to face with our eyes wide open.” “Our world is facing threats we didn’t face sixty or seventy years ago,” said Lawrence Krauss, a theoretical physicist and the chair of the Bulletin‘s Board of Sponsors. Better to think of the Clock as an indicator of trends, not a measurement of absolute risk-and few people would argue that the world hasn’t gotten at least 30 seconds more dangerous during 2016, a year that saw the election of an unstable global actor in Trump, and was the hottest on record to boot. It is meant to move the public to action-not to accurately represent how close humanity is to doomsday-which, unless you can see the future, isn’t calculable anyway. ![]() More than 75 years ago, the clock started ticking at seven minutes to midnight.Īt 17 minutes to midnight, the clock was furthest from doomsday in 1991, as the Cold War ended and the United States and Soviet Union signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty that substantially reduced both countries' nuclear weapons arsenals.The Clock is a triumph of iconography more than science, a symbol of the danger that human technology in its broadest sense poses to humans. ![]() The war was largely but not exclusively the reason for the hands moving forward, the scientists said. Its setting reflects a world in which Russia's invasion of Ukraine has revived fears of nuclear war. It is the first time it has moved since it was set at 100 seconds to midnight in 2020. WHAT TIME IS IT NOW?Īt 90 seconds to midnight, the "Doomsday Clock" is now the closest it has ever been to midnight. ![]() The clock was created in 1947 by a group of atomic scientists, including Albert Einstein, who had worked on the Manhattan Project to develop the world's first nuclear weapons during World War Two. REUTERS/Leah MillisĪ board of scientists and other experts in nuclear technology and climate science, including 13 Nobel Laureates, discuss world events and determine where to place the hands of the clock each year. ![]() The clock with the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is placed ahead of the announcement of the location of the minute hand on its Doomsday Clock, indicating what world developments mean for the perceived likelihood of nuclear catastrophe, at the National Press Club in Washington, U.S., January 24, 2023.
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