At the dawn of the nuclear age, scientists created the Doomsday Clock as a symbolic representation of how close humanity is to destroying the world. On Tuesday, nearly eight decades later, the clock was set at 85 seconds to midnight — the closest the timepiece has ever been to midnight, according to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which established the clock in 1947.Midnight represents the moment at which people will have made Earth uninhabitable.Last year, the Bulletin set the clock at 89 seconds to midnight, which was, at that point, the closest the world had ever been to that hour. After setting the clock at 90 seconds to midnight in 2023 and 2024, the scientists made the 2025 change due to insufficient progress in combatting or regulating global challenges including nuclear risk, the climate crisis, biological threats, and advances in “disruptive technologies” such as artificial intelligence. Bulletin scientists also cited the spread of misinformation, disinformation and conspiracy theories as other existential threats to humanity.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“Humanity has not made sufficient progress on the existential risks that endanger us all,” said Bulletin President and CEO Alexandra Bell of the reasoning for this year’s change. “The Doomsday Clock is a tool for communicating how close we are to destroying the world with technologies of our own making. The risks we face from nuclear weapons, climate change and disruptive technologies are all growing. Every second counts and we are running out of time.“It is a hard truth, but this is our reality,” Bell said.Last year, the Bulletin scientists warned that countries needed to change course toward international cooperation and action on the most critical existential risks, said Dr. Daniel Holz, chair of the Bulletin’s science and security board, in a news briefing Tuesday.“Rather than heed this warning, major countries became even more aggressive, adversarial and nationalistic,” added Holz, also a professor in the department of physics, astronomy an …
