The Science & Security Board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists [17] on Jan. 27 moved the symbolic hands of the Doomsday Clock to an unprecedented 85 seconds to midnight. The decision came a year after the clock was set to an also unprecedented 89 seconds to midnight [18]—and three years after it was moved to 90 seconds to midnight [19]. Each increment since 2017, when it was set at 2.5 minutes [20] of midnight, has brought the Clock closer to doomsday than ever before. This year's statement [21] reads: "A year ago, we warned that the world was perilously close to global disaster and that any delay in reversing course increased the probability of catastrophe. Rather than heed this warning, Russia, China, the United States, and other major countries have instead become increasingly aggressive, adversarial, and nationalistic. Hard-won global understandings are collapsing, accelerating a winner-takes-all great power competition and undermining the international cooperation critical to reducing the risks of nuclear war, climate change, the misuse of biotechnology, the potential threat of artificial intelligence, and other apocalyptic dangers." (BAS [23], NYT [24], The Guardian [25])
On Feb. 4, the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START [26]) is due to expire. If it does, it will mark the first time since the early 1970s that there will be no legally binding limits on US and Russian strategic nuclear forces without another agreement being under negotiation. (Chatham House [27])
Founded in 1945 by Albert Einstein, J. Robert Oppenheimer, and University of Chicago scientists who helped develop the first atomic weapons in the Manhattan Project, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists created the Doomsday Clock two years later, setting the hands at seven minutes of midnight. (BAS [21])
