Since we moved the clock forward, a year ago-in 2012, it was set at 11:55- developments have been mixed. The last time the clock was this close to midnight was in 1983-the height of the Cold War. It’s an expression of grave concern about how the global situation remains largely the same. The fact that the clock’s hands aren’t moving isn’t good news. It will remain set at 11:57-three minutes to midnight.
This year, we’ve decided not to move the clock either forward or backward. In a statement, we wrote that “Unchecked climate change, global nuclear weapons modernizations, and outsized nuclear weapons arsenals pose extraordinary and undeniable threats to the continued existence of humanity.” Last year, in January, 2015, the Bulletin set the Doomsday Clock at three minutes to midnight. This task has become even more complex in the past decade because the Bulletin has begun to explore issues beyond nuclear weapons, including climate change, bioterrorism, and cyber threats. Many disparate, worldwide factors must be judged in order to realistically assess the total existential risk facing humanity. As a result, I also work with the Bulletin’ s Science and Security Board, which, each year, decides on the position of the Doomsday Clock. I am privileged to chair the Bulletin’ s Board of Sponsors, a group of scientists, including sixteen Nobel laureates, that was created by Albert Einstein and Robert Oppenheimer after the Second World War to advise the Bulletin. The Doomsday Clock in 2002, when it was set at 11:53.