WASHINGTON (AN) — It's now 89 seconds to 'midnight' – a second closer than it was a year ago to the proverbial game-over time for humanity – says a group of scientists measuring global existential threats from nuclear weapons, wars, pandemics, climate change and artificial intelligence.
The 2025 time is the closest to midnight that the 'Doomsday Clock' has ever been since it began in 1947, signaling that "the world is on a course of unprecedented risk, and that continuing on the current path is a form of madness," the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists announced on Tuesday.
The organization – founded in 1945 by Albert Einstein, J. Robert Oppenheimer, and the University of Chicago scientists who helped develop the first atomic weapons in the Manhattan Project – said the United States, China, and Russia bear "the prime responsibility to pull the world back from the brink" and must take immediate action.
For the past two years, the group had kept the Clock at 90 seconds to midnight. But this year's annual announcement reflected growing concern about China's expanding nuclear program and ties with Russia, which has talked about using nuclear weapons against Ukraine.
“The purpose of the Doomsday Clock is to start a global conversation about the very real existential threats that keep the world’s top scientists awake at night," said Daniel Holz, a physicist and professor at the University of Chicago who chairs the Chicago-based science advocacy organization.
"National leaders must commence discussions about these global risks before it’s too late," he said. "Reflecting on these life-and-death issues and starting a dialogue are the first steps to turning back the Clock and moving away from midnight."
