JORDI BOU
The Doomsday Clock, which indicates how near humanity is to annihilation, has moved closer than ever to midnight, largely as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Doomsday Clock, created by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (BAS) to illustrate how close humanity has come to the end of the world, moved its “time” in 2023 to 90 seconds to midnight, 10 seconds closer than it has been for the past three years.
Midnight on this clock marks the theoretical point of annihilation.
BAS said the clock moved, in large part, because of the war in Ukraine. The other threats mentioned this year include climate change, biological threats and disruptive technologies.
The decision is made by the BAS science and security board, which includes 13 Nobel Laureates. This year the announcement was made available in Ukrainian and Russian as well as English, due to the war in Ukraine.
Each year, the BAS decides whether the events of the previous year pushed humanity closer to or farther from destruction.
The idea began in 1945, when scientists working on the Manhattan Project – developing the world’s first nuclear weapons – created BAS to warn humanity of the dangers of nuclear war. Two years later, BAS launched its Doomsday Clock.
Graphic News