"Doomsday Clock" moves to 85 seconds to midnight, closest point to catastrophe since its debut

The "Doomsday Clock," a metaphor for how close humanity is to self-annihilation, was moved to 85 seconds to midnight on Tuesday, its closest point to catastrophe since the clock made its debut nearly 80 years ago.

"Humanity has not made sufficient progress on the existential risks that endanger us all," said Alexandra Bell, president and CEO of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

The risks humanity faces from nuclear weapons, climate change and disruptive technologies are growing, Bell said. "Every second counts, and we are running out of time," she said.

Last year, the Bulletin set the clock at 89 seconds to midnight, which was its previous closest setting to midnight.

Daniel Holz, the chair of the Bulletin's science and security board that sets the "Doomsday Clock" and a physics professor at the University of Chicago, said major countries became more aggressive, adversarial and nationalistic in the past year.

Holz also noted that a 2010 strategic arms treaty between the U.S. and Russia is set to expire next week.

"For the first time in over half a century, there will be nothing preventing a runaway nuclear arms race," Holz said.

On climate change, Holz said atmospheric carbon dioxide and global sea levels have reached record highs.

"Droughts, fires, floods and storms continue to intensify and become more erratic, and this will only get worse," Holz said.

Holz also warned of a potential arms race surrounding artificial intelligence, which he said could result in dire consequences.

"AI is a significant and accelerating disruptive technology. AI is also supercharging mis- and disinformation, which makes it even more difficult to address all of the other threats we consider," Holz said.

He also expressed concern about what he referred to as "the increasing rise of nationalistic autocracies."

"If the world splinters into an us-versus-them, zero-sum approach, it increases the likelihood that we all lose," Holz said.

Holz also noted the two fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti this month by federal agents in Minnesota and what he called an "erosion of the constitutional rights of American citizens."

"History has shown that when governments become unaccountable to their own citizens, conflict and misery follow," Holz said.

The Bulletin first unveiled the clock in 1947 in the wake of the U.S. using atomic bombs against Japan in World War II. The group says its aims are to "help advance actionable ideas to reduce existential threats."

The clock's minute hand has been moved more than two dozen times in its nearly eight-decade history.

The farthest the clock has been from midnight was 17 minutes in 1991, following the end of the Cold War and the signing of a strategic arms treaty between the Soviet Union and the U.S. to reduce their nuclear arsenals.

In recent years, the clock has been ticking closer to midnight. The 2020s started with the clock moving to 100 seconds to midnight, with the group saying cyber-enabled information warfare was compounding the threat posed by nuclear war and climate change by undercutting society's ability to respond to either.

The clock stayed in that position for the next two years until 2023, when it was moved to 90 seconds to midnight, largely because of what the group said were the increasing dangers posed by Russia's war in Ukraine. It stayed at that setting in 2024.

Last year, the clock was moved one second closer to midnight, with the group saying, "Despite unmistakable signs of danger, national leaders and their societies have failed to do what is needed to change course."