Doomsday Clock: 100 Seconds until End of World

After a year marked by the COVID-19 pandemic and continued fears over nuclear risks and climate change, the symbolic Doomsday Clock remains stuck at the same time as last year.

"The hands of the Doomsday Clock remain at 100 seconds to midnight, as close to midnight as ever," Rachel Bronson, president of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (BAS), said on Wednesday (27 January).

Since 1947, the nonprofit organisation annually adjusts its symbolic annual end-of-days prediction, which "conveys how close we are to destroying our civilization with dangerous technologies of our own making," according to the group.

In 2020, the clock was set at 100 seconds to midnight, the closest it ever got to that point. Marking "a historic wakeup call," its hands have remained in the same place since.

Doomsday Clock: 100 seconds until the end of the world

Since 1947, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists annually adjusts its symbolic Doomsday Clock, which indicates how close humanity and the planet are to complete disaster. This year, we're closer than ever, the scientists announced on Thursday (23 January).

"[This year] revealed just how unprepared and unwilling countries and the international system are to handle global emergencies properly," the group said.

"It's a vivid illustration that national governments and international organizations are unprepared to manage the truly civilization-ending threats of nuclear weapons and climate change," Bronson said.

The clock was first created by US scientists working on the atomic bomb-building Manhattan Project during World War II to warn humanity of the dangers of nuclear war. It's current board members include 13 Nobel laureates.

The world was furthest from self...