Doomsday Clock at 85 seconds to midnight amid threats from climate crisis and AI | US news
The world is closer than ever to destruction as Russia, China, the United States and other countries become “increasingly aggressive, hostile and nationalistic,” a science-focused advocacy group said Tuesday as it moved the Doomsday Clock to 85 seconds to midnight.
Members of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists performed the first demonstration on Friday and then announced their results on Tuesday.
In making the annual announcement showing how close the end of humanity is, scientists cited the risks of nuclear war, the climate crisis, the possible misuse of biotechnology and the increasing use of artificial intelligence without adequate controls.
Last year it was 89 seconds to midnight.
The group said that since then, “hard-won global understandings have collapsed, accelerating winner-take-all great power competition and undermining the international cooperation needed to mitigate existential risks.”
They worry about the threat of escalating conflict between nuclear-armed countries, citing the Russia-Ukraine war, May’s dispute between India and Pakistan and whether Iran might develop nuclear weapons after attacks by the United States and Israel last summer.
International trust and cooperation is vital because “if the world is divided into an us-versus-them, zero-sum approach, that increases the likelihood that we will all lose,” said Daniel Holz, chairman of the group’s science and security board.
The group also highlighted droughts, heatwaves and floods linked to global warming, as well as the failure of countries to adopt meaningful agreements to combat global warming; He highlighted Donald Trump’s efforts to boost fossil fuels and block renewable energy production.
Beginning in 1947, the advocacy group used a clock to symbolize the potential, or even possibility, of humans doing something that would end humanity. At the end of the Cold War, it was about 17 minutes to midnight. Over the past few years, to keep up with rapid global changes, the group has transitioned from counting down the minutes to counting down the seconds until midnight.
The group said the clock could be turned back if leaders and nations worked together to address existential risks.
