The metaphorical Doomsday Clock set by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists was set at 100 seconds until midnight this week, as the organization says, “Humanity continues to face two simultaneous existential dangers—nuclear war and climate change.”
Rachel Bronson, president and CEO of Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, says, “We now face a true emergency – an absolutely unacceptable state of world affairs that has eliminated any margin for error or further delay.”
Regarding climate change, the organization says governmental action still falls far short of meeting the challenge at hand.
The Doomsday Clock has now moved closer to midnight in three of the last four years.
While the Doomsday Clock did not move in 2019, its minute hand was set forward in 2018 by 30 seconds, to two minutes to midnight.
The clock was adjusted in 2017 to two and a half minutes to midnight from its previous setting of three minutes to midnight.