January
24, 2023
Scientists
revealed on Tuesday that the "Doomsday Clock" has been moved up to 90
seconds before midnight -- the closest humanity has ever been to armageddon.
Bulletin
of the Atomic Scientists moved the metaphorical clock up 10 seconds from where
it had stayed for the past two years, citing the escalation in Russia's
invasion of Ukraine in February of 2022.
"Russia's
thinly veiled threats to use nuclear weapons remind the world that escalation
of the conflict by accident, intention or calculation is a terrible risk,"
said Rachel Bronson, president and CEO of the Bulletin of the Atomic
Scientists. "The possibilities that the conflict can spin out of anyone's
control remains high."
Bronson
noted that U.N. Secretary General António Guterres warned in August that the
"world has entered a time of nuclear danger not seen since the height of
the Cold War."
"The
war's effects also undermine global efforts to combat climate change as
countries dependent on Russian oil and gas have expanded investment in natural
gas," Bronson said.
The
additional concern of Russia's "false accusation" that Ukraine is
planning to use radiological dispersal devices, chemical and biological weapons
"take on new meaning," she added. "The continuing stream of
disinformation about bio weapons laboratories in Ukraine raises concerns that
Russia itself maybe thinking of deploying such weapons."
For
the past 75 years, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, a nonprofit media
organization comprised of world leaders and Nobel laureates, has announced how
close it believes the world is to collapse due to nuclear war, climate change
and, most recently, the COVID-19 pandemic.
"It
is a metaphor, a reminder of the perils we must address if we are to survive on
the planet," the Bulletin, which created the clock, said on its website,
also calling it "a design that warns the public about how close we are to
destroying our world with dangerous technologies of our own making."
Tuesday's
announcement was the first since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, although the
panel issued a warning during its last "Doomsday Clock" news
conference that Ukraine was a potential flashpoint in an increasingly tense
international security environment.
"The
challenges outlined by today's announcement by the Bulletin of the Atomic
Scientists could not be more global in nature," Mary Robinson, the former
president of Ireland and the one-time U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights,
said during Tuesday's news conference. "No one country can tackle them on
their own no matter how large their population, how strong their economy or how
feared their military."
Launched
in 1947, scientists wanted to highlight the possibility of catastrophe to the
public as it pertained to the nuclear arms race between the U.S. and the Soviet
Union, according to the Bulletin, saying that "the greatest danger to
humanity came from nuclear weapons" at the time.
The
clock indicates how much time remains until midnight, theoretical doomsday.
At
its launch, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists set the "Doomsday
Clock" at seven minutes before midnight because artist Martyl Langsdorf,
who sketched the clock that appeared on the June 1947 edition of the magazine,
said “it looked good” in her eyes, the organization says.
Before
2020, the closest the hand was set to midnight was two minutes.
Shortly
after Russia invaded Ukraine, the Bulletin kept the clock at 100 seconds to
midnight, saying that Russian President Vladimir Putin's threats to use nuclear
weapons if NATO stepped in to help Ukraine "is what 100 seconds to
midnight looks like."
In
September, Putin issued a thinly veiled threat that Russia would resort to
using nuclear weapons in its fight against Ukraine following several setbacks.
The
Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Ukraine has come under
repeated fire since Russia took it over in March 2022, increasing the risk of
nuclear disaster.
Rafael
Grossi, director general of the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency, said
last week that he is worried the world has become complacent about the
potential risks to the plant.
The
furthest the clock has ever been from midnight was 17 minutes in 1991 after
then-President George H. W. Bush and former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev
both announced reductions in the nuclear arsenals of their respective
countries.
"That
reflected a moment when the world was seriously engaging with issues of risk and
working together to mitigate it," Bronson said.
ABC
News' Julia Jacobo contributed to this report.
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