If you take a look around the world today it’s hard not to notice the bleakness and darkness that surrounds us.
For some, the fear of clime change destroying the earth is paralyzing. Global warming and the destruction it brings with it weighs heavy on their minds. For others, it is the political uncertainty of the world that looms over their heads like a dark cloud. They see nothing but hatred and bitterness between major world leaders and combined with the realities of terror and espionage they believe the nukes could start flying any day now.
As it turns out, the very people who keep track of just how close our civilization is to being wiped off the face of the earth tend to agree with this bleak assessment.
The Doomsday Clock has never been closer to striking midnight. The metaphorical measure of how close humanity is to extinction has been maintained by nonprofit group Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists since 1947. This year, the group says they’re moving the clock closer to midnight than ever before — just 100 seconds away, down from two minutes.
“The iconic Doomsday Clock symbolizing the gravest perils facing humankind is now closer to midnight than at any point since its creation in 1947,” reads a press release from the group, whose board of sponsors includes 13 Nobel Laureates. “Humanity continues to face two simultaneous existential dangers — nuclear war and climate change — that are compounded by a threat multiplier, cyber-enabled information warfare, that undercuts society’s ability to respond.”
Bulletin also names the dire erosion of international security and political infrastructure as motives for their decision to give the human race just 100 seconds on the clock.
Just last year the clock was set to two minutes till midnight, making the 20-second jump a major difference. Since its inception in 1947, it has been steadily ticking closer and closer to doomsday.
