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Humanity is the closest it’s ever been to the top of the world – 85 seconds, to be exact.
Scientists pushed the hands of the Doomsday Clock, which predicts how close humanity is to extinction, by 4 seconds today.
If this metaphorical timepiece strikes midnight, it means humankind has failed to stop Armageddon – think nuclear war or climate change.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists revealed how close we’re to the stroke of doom at a 3pm announcement from Washington DC.
The bulletin’s CEO, Alexandra Bell, said that humanity has not done enough to stop making the Earth uninhabitable.
‘Every second counts and we’re running out of time. It’s a tough truth, but that is our reality,’ she added.
‘Overall, 2025 has been a reasonably bleak picture by way of advancing existential risks,’ Bell added.
Board member John Wolfsthal said that while deciding how far to maneuver the clock is nearly at all times tricky, they’d ‘no such challenges this yr’.
The clock has been ticking ever closer to midnight lately, from 90 seconds to midnight for 2023 to 89 seconds to midnight last yr.
This can be a far cry from when it was farthest from midnight in 1991 – 17 minutes – after the US and the Soviet Union agreed to scale back their nuclear stockpiles.
Quite a bit, nonetheless, has modified within the 35 years since.
Why has the Doomsday Clock modified?
One among the primary reasons for bringing the second hand forward is the fear that World War Three could break out.
The bulletin has said time and time again that a single ‘rash decision’ or accident could make the years-long war a nuclear one.
Yet despite these stark warnings, ‘aggressive’ countries have embraced nuclear weaponry and war.
Only last Saturday did Iran warn that an attack from Washington would result in an ‘all-out war’ over the Islamic Republic’s protest crackdown.
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How close have we come to the top of the world?
12 months: Minute to midnight
2026: 1.25
2025: 1.29
2023: 1.5
2020: 1.67
2018: Two
2017: 2.5
2015: Three
2012: Five
2010: Six
2007: Five
2002: Seven
1998: Nine
1995: 14
1991: 17
1990: 10
1988: Six
1984: Three
1981: 4
1980: Seven
1974: Nine
1972: 12
1969: 10
1968: Seven
1963: 12
1960: Seven
1953: Two
1949: Three
1947: Seven
Donald Trump, meanwhile, has been sparking fears that Nato – an alliance of Western nations – might be torn apart by his quest to seize Greenland.
The icy, rocky island home to only 55,000 people is a Danish territory, yet the White House says it desires to annexe it ‘whether or not they prefer it or not’.
Last yr also saw the continuation of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza following the deaths of 1,100 Israelis on October 7, 2023.
For the reason that start of Israel’s counter-offensive, at the least 71,000 Palestinians have been killed and a few 171,000 injured, mostly women and kids.
While a fragile ceasefire paused the conflict in October, Russia’s war against Ukraine shows no signs of ending anytime soon.
Latest tech like unregulated AI tools ‘pose a threat to the survival of humanity’, bulletin board member Steve Fetter said.
Fetter expressed fears about how generative AI can churn out fake images and videos, something Trump has done multiple times now.
‘Using such videos can try to influence folks that things have happened which have not happened, that there are perhaps riots in a location or acts of war which might be fake,’ he added.
A war that can unfold in space is becoming increasingly likely.
Humanity’s reliance on fossil fuels has continued to upend the world, the bulletin added.
Climate change worsened, amongst other things, last January’s deadly wildfires in California, the summer’s deadly heatwaves in Europe and the powerful hurricane that devastated Jamaica in October.
Climate expert and forecaster Jim NR Dale told Metro that the world becoming 3°C warmer, compared with preindustrial levels, is ‘inevitable’ inside the following few a long time.
‘This point in itself is Armageddon,’ Dale said,’ but when we move by 4°C, then that actually is the top.
‘Hence, an incredibly loud tick-tock.’
Biological threats, similar to the coronavirus and bird flu, and the responses to them by officials, have also been cited by the bulletin as aspects.
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