Hands of Doomsday Clock Stay At 100 Seconds Before Midnight

CHICAGO — Despite condemning Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “illegal and dangerous invasion” of Ukraine and his dialing up of nuclear threats, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists is keeping the Doomsday Clock set at 100 seconds to midnight — the closest it has ever been to apocalypse.

The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists is headquartered at 1307 E. 60th St., in the lobby of the Keller Center, home to the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy. The Bulletin was founded in 1945 by Albert Einstein and University of Chicago scientists who helped develop the first atomic weapons in the Manhattan Project. Two years later, they created, the Doomsday Clock as a metaphor based on the threat posed by nuclear weapons, which Bulletin scientists consider to be the gravest danger to humanity.

Today, the figurative clock in Hyde Park has become a universally recognized indicator representing the world’s vulnerability to nuclear weapons, climate change and other disruptive technologies.

The Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists meets at least twice a year to deliberate the Doomsday Clock. In January 2020, the minute hand was moved 30 seconds forward from two minutes to 100 seconds before midnight.

“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,” the board said in 2020. “The international security situation is dire, not just because these threats exist, but because world leaders have allowed the international political infrastructure for managing them to erode.”

As in 2021, the clock remained set at 100 seconds to midnight, as the existential threats of nuclear weapons and climate change intensified, coupled with misleading information downplaying the COVID-19 pandemic and false conspiracy theories, undermining national and global leaders’ abilities to safeguard citizens.

In January, the board met again to deliberate the Doomsday Clock. Calling out Ukraine as a potential flashpoint in an increasingly tense and insecure world, as well as Putin’s placing Russian nuclear armaments on high alert.

“Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has brought this nightmare scenario to life, with Russian President Vladimir Putin threatening to elevate nuclear alert levels and even first use of nuclear weapons if NATO steps in to help Ukraine. This is what 100 seconds to midnight looks like,” the Board said Monday in its official Doomsday Clock statement.

The Science and Security Board further condemned the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, calling on all countries “to denounce Russia’s actions and Putin’s outrageous threats of nuclear use, and for Russia to withdraw its forces and live up to its 1994 pledge made as part of the successful process of ensuring Ukraine did not gain control over the 1,900 nuclear weapons left on its territory when the Soviet Union dissolved—to fully respect Ukraine’s territorial integrity.”

Over the years, the Doomsday Clock has been moved forward and backward at least 24 times. The closest the minute hand came was in 1953, when the clock was moved to two minutes before midnight when both the United States and Soviet Union tested hydrogen bombs. Even during the Cuban Missile Crisis, when nuclear tensions escalated between the United States and the Soviet Union, the Doomsday Clock remained set at seven minutes to midnight.

In 1991, the Doomsday Clock was reset at 17 minutes before midnight — the furthest back it has ever been set — due largely to the signing of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty between the United States and Soviet Union, putting an end to the Cold War through their agreement to reduce and limit strategic offensive arms.

Moving incrementally forward in the 21st century, the clock was set at two and a half minutes in 2017, then forward to two minutes before midnight in January 2018, and left unchanged until 2020, when it was moved 30 seconds forward.

Now, all eyes remained fixed on the Doomsday Clock in Hyde Park.

This article originally appeared on the Chicago Patch