Miami, United States. – The famous Apocalypse clock (Doomsday Clock) now marks only 89 seconds to the “midnight”, thus marking the greatest proximity to the hypothetical end of the world since the symbolic mechanism was created 78 years ago. The announcement It was made on Tuesday by the expert committee convened by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, gathered in Washington to offer its annual analysis of how close is the humanity of a global catastrophe.
The determination is an additional step with respect to 2023, when it was located 90 seconds from midnight. Now, the Committee considers that humanity is even closer to its self -destruction due to threats such as nuclear proliferation, climate crisis, wars and dangers that derive from poorly regulated artificial intelligence.
“The world has not made enough progress to stop our own end. Every second the probability of a global catastrophe increases, ”said Daniel Holz, president of the Board of Science and Security Board and Professor of the University of Chicago.
The Doomsday Clock was Moved to 89 Seconds to Midnight Today, Jan. 28, The Closest It’s Ever Been.
The Doomsday Clock is a decades-Long Project of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Featuring a Clock Face Where Midnight Represents Armageddon. https://t.co/srkjbmqbkl pic.twitter.com/sshxx8g58s
– Use Today Graphics (@usatgraphics) January 28, 2025
This “Watch of the Final Judgment”, which was born in 1947 with the purpose of alerting about the danger of a nuclear holocaust, has become a cultural reference over the years. Its objective is not to exactly forecast the end of humanity, but to serve as a call for attention to the risks and the urgency of taking measures.
The group that “adjusts” the clock is made up of first level scientists, among which are several Nobel awards, who insist that the alarm is necessary to “alert humanity of the dangers that stalk it.”
The former president of Colombia and Nobel Peace Prize Juan Manuel Santos He participated in the press conference globally transmitted from the La Paz Institute in Washington. In Your interventionthe ex -president urged the governments of the world to act in coordination to reverse the trend. “This is not yet irreversible, we still have an opportunity to move the clock hands towards our favor. We depend on world leaders feeling to talk to try to find a collective solution. Every second account, ”he said.
The Apocalypse clock has experienced 26 adjustments since its creation. When it emerged in 1947, it marked seven minutes before midnight, promoted by the development of the first atomic bombs and the warnings of prominent figures such as Albert Einstein and J. Robert Oppenheimer, participants of the Manhattan project. Although at the beginning of the 1990s the hands backed down until 17 minutes from midnight – coinciding with the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War -, since 2007 the clock has not stopped advancing or Stay immovable near midnight.
In recent years, climate change was incorporated as an essential factor to calculate the proximity of the end of the world. Experts ensure that intensive use of fossil fuels, the increase in extreme climatic events and the lack of solid international agreements to reverse environmental damage, continue to “roam” the bad omens.
This alarm of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, which is broadcast once a year, generates criticism and accusations of alarmism. However, those who integrate it defend the symbolic nature of the tool and emphasize the intention of persuading governments, political leaders and citizenship to urgently assume the task of avoiding a self -inflicted catastrophe. Apart from the risk of a nuclear conflict, scientists warn that future pandemics, manipulation of artificial intelligence for military purposes and the humanitarian crisis derived from natural disasters could converge and sharpen global instability.
