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Doomsday Clock Ticks Closer to Midnight: Humanity 85 Seconds Away From Catastrophe
Washington D.C. – The symbolic Doomsday Clock, maintained by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, has been moved forward by four seconds this year, now resting at a chilling 85 seconds to midnight. This stark adjustment serves as an urgent warning, indicating humanity’s increasing proximity to a global catastrophe primarily driven by man-made causes.
On Tuesday, the Bulletin released its annual assessment, expressing profound concern that global leaders have largely ignored previous warnings. “Rather than heed this warning, Russia, China, the United States, and other major countries have instead become increasingly aggressive, adversarial, and nationalistic,” the Bulletin’s statement declared. They highlighted a concerning collapse of “hard-won global understandings,” fostering a “winner-takes-all great power competition” that undermines crucial international cooperation needed to mitigate risks from nuclear war, climate change, biotechnology misuse, and the potential threat of artificial intelligence.
The group of atomic scientists criticized world leaders for their growing complacency and indifference. “Far too many leaders have grown complacent and indifferent, in many cases adopting rhetoric and policies that accelerate rather than mitigate these existential risks,” the statement read.
The Doomsday Clock originated in 1947, initially set at seven minutes to midnight, to symbolize the threat of nuclear danger. Its position has fluctuated over the decades, reflecting shifts in global security.
In 1949, as the global nuclear arms race intensified, the clock leaped to three minutes to midnight. Conversely, the 1963 Test Ban Treaty saw it move back to a more hopeful twelve minutes to midnight.
The farthest it has ever been from “doomsday” was 17 minutes to midnight in 1991, at the end of the Cold War. In recent years, the clock has steadily advanced, reaching 90 seconds in 2023 and 89 seconds in 2025 before its current setting.
This year, the Bulletin’s primary areas of concern include nuclear risk, climate change, biological threats, and disruptive technologies. The organization pointed to a “glimmer of hope” at the start of last year, with a new President working towards peace in Ukraine and even suggesting “denuclearization” among major powers. However, this hope was quickly dashed by “Russian allusions to nuclear weapons use,” conflicts between India and Pakistan, and bombings of Iranian nuclear facilities.
The climate crisis also contributed significantly to the clock’s advancement. The Bulletin observed an increasingly erratic “hydrologic cycle” due to warming temperatures, leading to widespread deluges and droughts.
Examples cited include droughts in Peru, the Amazon, and Africa, over 60,000 heat-related deaths in Europe, and record rainfall in Brazil. The Bulletin deemed responses to the climate emergency “insufficient to profoundly destructive,” noting that recent U.N. climate summits failed to prioritize phasing out fossil fuels or monitoring carbon dioxide emissions.
In the United States, the Bulletin criticized the administration’s “war on renewable energy and sensible climate policies,” which has undermined national efforts to combat climate change.
An “arms race” was also cited as a factor, with increasing numbers of nuclear warheads and platforms in China, and the modernization of nuclear delivery systems in the United States, Russia, and China. The planned deployment of the U.S. “Golden Dome” missile defense system, featuring space-based interceptors, raises concerns about potential conflict in space and a new space-based arms race.
Of “most immediate concern,” according to the Bulletin, is the “rapid degradation of U.S. public health infrastructure and expertise,” which severely hampers the ability of the United States and other nations to respond to pandemics and other biological threats.
The U.S. push for artificial intelligence in defense, despite its potential dangers, also contributed to the time change. The Bulletin highlighted the revocation of a previous executive order on AI safety, reflecting a “dangerous prioritization of innovation over safety.”
Finally, the rise of autocracy was added to the list of pressing concerns. The Bulletin criticized the leaders of the United States, Russia, and China for adopting “approaches to international relations that favor grandiosity and competition over diplomacy and cooperation.” While autocracy itself isn’t necessarily a threat, an “us-versus-them, zero-sum approach increases the risk of global catastrophe,” hindering international cooperation, reducing accountability, and acting as a “threat accelerant” that makes dangerous nuclear, climatic, and technological threats all the harder to reverse.