The 2022 Doomsday Clock will remain at 100 seconds to midnight, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists announced Thursday.
Citing the COVID-19 pandemic response and international security trends, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists kept the hands of the clock in the same position as last year, the closest it’s been to midnight in history.
‘CATASTROPHE IN SECONDS’: DOOMSDAY CLOCK SET CLOSEST TO MIDNIGHT IN ITS HISTORY
“The members of the Science and Security Board find the world to be no safer than it was last year at this time,” the board wrote in a statement announcing the time. “The Clock remains the closest it has ever been to civilization-ending apocalypse because the world remains stuck in an extremely dangerous moment.”
The time on the clock represents the level of threat to human existence based on the judgment of science and security experts.
“Today, the members of the Science and Security Board find the world to be no safer than it was last year at this time and therefore has decided to set the #DoomsdayClock once again at 100 seconds to midnight.” – @RachelBronson1, Bulletin President & CEO https://t.co/oA31lHsPxL pic.twitter.com/RqHVezJ36Q
— Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (@BulletinAtomic) January 20, 2022
Some of the risks that the statement outlined were nuclear modernization efforts from the United States, China, and Russia, “little action” in regards to climate change, and biological threats posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The COVID-19 pandemic serves as a historic wake up call, a vivid illustration that national governments and international organizations are unprepared to manage complex and dangerous challenges like those of nuclear weapons,” President and CEO of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists Rachel Bronson said during a livestream announcement.
The statement also pointed to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, saying it demonstrates that “no country is immune to threats to its democracy.”
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This year marks the 75th anniversary of the clock, which was first made operational in 1947.
The farthest from doomsday that the clock has been set is 17 minutes to midnight following the end of the Cold War.
