WASHINGTON –
Atomic scientists set the “Doomsday Clock” closer to midnight than ever on Tuesday, saying threats of nuclear war, disease and climate instability have intensified since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, putting humanity at greater risk from destruction.
The “Doomsday Clock,” created by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists to illustrate how close humanity is to the end of the world, has moved its “time” in 2023 to 90 seconds to midnight, 10 seconds closer than it is been for the last three years.
Midnight on this clock marks the theoretical point of annihilation. The hands of the clock move closer or further away from midnight based on scientists’ reading of existential threats at a particular time.
The new era reflects a world in which Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has revived fears of nuclear war.
“Russia’s thinly veiled threats to use nuclear weapons remind the world that escalating conflict by accident, intent or misjudgment is a terrible risk. The potential for the conflict to spiral out of anyone’s control remains high,” Rachel Bronson, the newsletter’s president and CEO, said at a news conference in Washington on Tuesday.
The bulletin’s message will be translated from English to Ukrainian and Russian for the first time to attract relevant attention, Bronson said.
A Chicago-based nonprofit, the newsletter updates the clock time each year based on information about catastrophic risks to the planet and humanity.
The organization’s board of scientists and other experts in nuclear technology and climate science, including 13 Nobel laureates, discuss world events and determine where to set the hands of the clock each year.
Apocalyptic threats reflected by the clock include politics, weapons, technology, climate change and pandemics.
The clock was set 100 seconds to midnight since 2020, which was already the closest to midnight.
The board said the war in Ukraine had also increased the risk of biological weapons being deployed if the conflict continued.
“The continued flow of disinformation about biological weapons laboratories in Ukraine raises concerns that Russia itself may be considering deploying such weapons,” Bronson said.
Sivan Karta, a board member and scientist at the Stockholm Environmental Institute, said natural gas prices pushed to new heights by the war had also encouraged companies to develop natural gas sources outside Russia and turned to coal-fired power plants as an alternative source of energy.
“Global carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels, after rebounding from the COVID economic downturn to peak in 2021, continue to rise in 2022 and hit a new record… With emissions, which continue to increase, extreme weather events continue, and are even more clearly due to climate change,” Karta said, citing the devastating floods in Pakistan in 2022 as an example.
The watch was created in 1947 by a group of atomic scientists, including Albert Einstein, who worked on the Manhattan Project to develop the world’s first nuclear weapons during World War II.
More than 75 years ago, it started ticking at seven minutes to midnight.
At 17 minutes to midnight, the clock was furthest from the Doomsday in 1991, when the Cold War ended and the United States and the Soviet Union signed a treaty that greatly reduced both countries’ nuclear arsenals.
Reporting by Catherine Jackson Editing by Rosalba O’Brien
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