There are still 90 seconds until the end of the world. Before you run to the fallout shelter, know that, while disturbing, this is nothing more than a symbolic calculation carried out each year by a committee convened by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. It is one of those traditions (like the January Descent, the commitment to abstinence in Dry January or Blue Monday) that make the first day of the year the cruelest month, and it consists in revealing how close these experts are to humanity in the apocalypse clock (doomsday clock) at midnight, a euphemism behind which total destruction is hidden. The closer, the less there would be left for the end of the world. The good news is that the hands are the same distance apart as last year. The bad news: 2023 was the most worrying record since timekeeping began in 1947.
The reasons for concern? The Guardians of the Hands of the Apocalypse, presenting their conclusions in Washington this Tuesday, cited the rise of artificial intelligence, the proliferation of nuclear weapons, the war between Russia and Ukraine and Israel's war in Gaza, biological threats and the climate crisis and the rampant ones Misinformation, in many cases spread by states themselves. At the event, which unfortunately started late, science popularizer Bill Nye was in attendance, and the featured voice was Rachel Bronson, president and CEO of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. She explained that it is about answering two questions: “Is humanity safer or at greater risk this year than last year?” And: “Is humanity safer or more at risk this year compared to more than 75 years ago who are we doing this exercise?”
It's not a stable world
Bronson also urged that no one be fooled: “Setting the clock to 90 seconds before midnight is not an indication that the world is stable.” Quite the opposite. Trends continue to point ominously to a global catastrophe. The war in Ukraine continues to pose the ever-present threat of nuclear escalation. And the attack on October 7th [de Hamás] in Israel and the war in Gaza once again illustrate the horrors of modern war, even without nuclear escalation. As if that were not enough, nuclear-armed countries are pursuing modernization programs that threaten to trigger a new arms race,” Bronson said.
Regarding climate change, the expert recalled that “the Earth experienced the hottest year ever” and that “massive floods, fires and other climate-related disasters have occurred.” And a lack of action on climate change threatens the lives and livelihoods of billions of people.” In the debate that followed the announcement, artificial intelligence, with its promises of progress for humanity and its threats, was another major topic, with particular attention paid to how This new technology can influence the mood of voters through the use of tricks than deepfakes, in an electoral year for a large part of the world's population.
These apocalypse watchmakers are often criticized for their alarmism, but they defend that the point is precisely to warn humanity of the dangers that threaten them. The group is made up of high-level experts, including Nobel Prize winners, who lend themselves to a game of hypotheses that began shortly after the first atomic bomb and the publication of the Bulletin by Albert Einstein, J. Robert Oppenheimer and several members of the Manhattan Project.
In 2018, the clock struck 11:58 p.m. Never before has it been so close to midnight, except once: it was 1953, when the United States and the Soviet Union were in the middle of a thermonuclear bomb arms race. Since that record six years ago, they have happened one after another. In January 2020, they left with a lead of 100 seconds. Then the coronavirus pandemic hit (and the clock didn’t move). Later, a war in Europe meant that in 2023 we would be just 90 seconds, another historic mark, from the end of time.
In the first edition in 1947 it was set to seven minutes. Since then, it has moved 25 times and has become a reference in pop culture thanks to its cameo appearances in films such as “Red Telephone”, Stanley Kubrick's “Shall We Fly to Moscow?” or songs by rock groups such as “Smashing Pumpkins”. The best records were achieved in the early 1990s with the fall of the Eastern Bloc and the Berlin Wall. In 1991 the hands were 17 minutes to midnight, 7 minutes earlier than the previous year. Since then, and with the exception of 2009 and 2010, the clock has not stopped moving forward. In 2007, climate change was classified as a serious threat to humanity and this factor has not ceased to cause bad omens in all these years.
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