The Doomsday Clock reached the point closest to midnight this year, the symbolic hour at which humanity comes to an end.
The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists (BAS), which handles the clock every year, said time moved 90 seconds before the end of the daylargely due to the war in Ukraine.
Started in 1947, the idea is to indicate how close our planet is to complete annihilation. because of humanity and its actions.
It began after World War II to warn the planet about the dangers of nuclear war.
- How to interpret the Doomsday Clock
The hands move closer to or further from midnight based on scientists’ reading of existential threats in the previous months.
the midnight mark the theoretical point of annihilation.
The decision is made by the BAS science and safety board, which includes 13 Nobel laureates.
“Climbing is a terrible risk”
This year’s ad was made available in Ukrainian and Russian, as well as English, due to the war that has been going on between Russia and Ukraine since February 2022.
The board stated that the conflict has raised deep questions about how nations interact, as well as a decline in international conduct.
“Russia’s thinly veiled threats of use nuclear weapons remind the world that the escalation of the conflict, by accident, intention or miscalculationIt’s a terrible risk,” he said.
Other risks considered this year include climate change, biological threats and disruptive technologies.
“The effects of war are not limited to an increase in the nuclear danger; they also undermine global efforts to combat climate change,” the scientists said in the statement.
Countries that have relied on Russian oil and gas in the past are now looking another supplierswhich may or may not be “green”.
And as the world continues to experience the consequences of the covid-19 pandemicthe board said world leaders will need to continue to identify and address the biohazardswhether the origin is natural, accidental or intentional.
A pandemic, he warned, is no longer a once-in-a-lifetime risk.
In 2020, the clock hands moved 100 seconds closer to midnight. The following years, in 2021 and 2022, the hands stayed in the same place.
The farthest the clock hands have gone was just after the end of the Cold War, at 17 minutes past midnight.
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