There are 90 seconds left until the end of the world. Before running to the nuclear shelter, you should know that, although disturbing, it is nothing more than a symbolic calculation that is carried out each year by a committee convened by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. It is one of those traditions (like the January slope, the commitment of abstinence of the dry January or the Blue Monday) that make the first of the year the cruelest month, and consists of revealing how close these experts consider humanity to be to its midnight on the Apocalypse Clock (Doomsday Clock), euphemism behind which total extermination is hidden. The closer it is, the less time there is until the end of the world. The good news is that the hands remain the same distance apart as last year. The bad news: 2023 was the most worrying record since the clock was started back in 1947.
The reasons for concern? The custodians of the hands of the apocalypse cited this Tuesday in the presentation of their conclusions the rise of artificial intelligence, the proliferation of nuclear weapons, the war between Russia and Ukraine and the one waged by Israel in Gaza, biological threats, the climate crisis and rampant disinformation promoted in many cases by the States themselves. At the event, which began, alas, late, they had the popular scientific communicator Bill Nye, and the leading voice was Rachel Bronson, president and CEO of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. She explained that it is about answering two questions: “Is humanity safer or is it at greater risk this year than last year?” And: “Is humanity safer or at greater risk this year, compared to the more than 75 years we have been carrying out this exercise?”
Bronson also asked that no one be fooled: “Setting the clock at 90 seconds to midnight is not an indication that the world is stable. Quite the opposite. There is an urgent need for governments and communities around the world to act. And the Bulletin maintains hope (and inspiration) as we see the younger generations leading the change.”
These apocalypse watchmakers often receive criticism for their alarmism, but they defend that that is precisely what it is about, alerting humanity of the dangers that threaten it. The group is made up of top-level experts, including Nobel Prize winners, who lend themselves to a game of hypotheses that began shortly after the first atomic bombs and several members of the Manhattan Project launched the Bulletin.
In 2018, the clock struck 11:58 p.m. They had never been so close to midnight, except on one occasion: it was in 1953 when the United States and the Soviet Union were in the middle of an arms race with thermonuclear bombs. Since that record six years ago, they have happened one after another. In January 2020, they left it with 100 seconds left. Then, the coronavirus pandemic arrived (and the clock did not move), and later, a war in Europe, which caused that in 2023 only 90 seconds, another mark, separated us from the end of time.
In its first edition, in 1947, it was set at seven minutes. And since then, it has been moved 25 times while becoming a popular culture reference, thanks to his cameos in films like Red phone, shall we fly to Moscow?, by Stanley Kubrick, or songs by Smashing Pumpkins. The best records came in the early 1990s, with the fall of the Soviet bloc and the Berlin Wall. In 1991, the hands were 17 minutes from midnight, 7 minutes earlier than the previous year. Since then, and with the exception of 2009 and 2010, the clock has not stopped moving forward. In 2007, climate change was included as a serious danger for humanity and this factor has not ceased to give rise to bad omens in all these years.
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