Washington, Jan 29, (dpa/GNA) – Scientists behind the “Doomsday Clock” set it to 85 seconds to midnight for the first time and warned of a looming global catastrophe, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists reported on Tuesday.
At this setting, the hands are now closer to midnight than ever before in the history of the clock, which was created in 1947, two years after the founding of the organization by Albert Einstein, J. Robert Oppenheimer and others.
This means the danger that humanity wipes itself out through nuclear war or self-inflicted global warming is now greater than at any time since the clock was created. The symbolic setting of the clock is announced once a year.
The setting is based on the experts’ concerns over the aggressive behaviour of the nuclear powers Russia, China and the United States, the climate crisis, conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, and possible impacts of artificial intelligence, the researchers said.
In recent years the hands of the clock have moved ever closer to midnight, from 100 seconds to 90, and last year to 89.
GNA