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Doomsday Clock stuck at 100 seconds to midnight
- Hypersonic weapons, the climate crisis, disinformation and threats to democracy mean the world remains caught in ‘a dangerous moment’, experts say
- To avoid catastrophe, world leaders must do a much better job of heeding science and cooperating, adds the head of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists
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The “Doomsday Clock,” representing the judgment of leading science and security experts about perils to human existence, remains at 100 seconds to midnight this year, with advances like Covid-19 vaccines balanced by rising misinformation and other threats.
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists president Rachel Bronson declared the world was no safer this year than 2019, when the clock’s hands were moved to their current position.
“If humanity is to avoid an existential catastrophe, one that would dwarf anything it has yet seen, national leaders must do a far better job of countering disinformation, heeding science and cooperating,” she told reporters on the 75th anniversary of the clock’s initial unveiling.
The fact that it has not shifted closer to midnight does not imply threats have stabilised, the group said in a full statement.
“On the contrary, the clock remains the closest it has ever been to civilisation-ending apocalypse because the world remains stuck in an extremely dangerous moment.”
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