The Doomsday Clock symbolising how near humanity is to destruction has been moved one second forward to 89 seconds to midnight – the closest it has ever been.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (BAS) – which sets the clock annually – said nuclear threats, potential misuses of advances in biology and artificial intelligence, as well as climate change, were the key factors.
Daniel Holz, chair of the Bulletin’s Science and Security Board, said the latest move was “a warning to all world leaders”.
The clock was originally placed at seven minutes to midnight in 1947. Last year, it was left unchanged at 90 seconds.
In Tuesday’s statement, the BAS – a Chicago-based non-profit organisation – said: “In setting the clock one second closer to midnight, we send a stark signal.
“Because the world is already perilously close to the precipice, a move of even a single second should be taken as an indication of extreme danger and an unmistakable warning that every second of delay in reversing course increases the probability of global disaster.”
It warned that the continuing war in Ukraine – now nearing a three-year mark since Russia’s full-scale invasion – “could become nuclear at any moment because of a rash decision or through accident or miscalculation”.
“Conflict in the Middle East threatens to spiral out of control into a wider war without warning,” the statement said.
The panel of scientists also said that “the long-term prognosis for the world’s attempts to deal with climate change remains poor, as most governments fail to enact the financing and policy initiatives necessary to halt global warming.”
In the biological arena, the BAS continued, “emerging and re-emerging diseases continue to threaten the economy, society and security of the world”.
It also warned that “an array of other disruptive technologies advanced last year in ways that make the world more dangerous”.
“Systems that incorporate artificial intelligence in military targeting have been used in Ukraine and the Middle East, and several countries are moving to integrate artificial intelligence into their militaries.”
The organisation stressed that all these dangers “are greatly exacerbated by a potent threat multiplier: the spread of misinformation, disinformation and conspiracy theories that degrade the communication ecosystem and increasingly blur the line between truth and falsehood”.
The US, China and Russia, the BAS said, “have the collective power to destroy civilisation”, adding that the three nations “have the prime responsibility to pull the world back from the brink”.
