The Doomsday Clock is ticking closer to midnight. It is now set at 85 seconds before midnight.
Midnight, when it comes to the Doomsday Clock, is a tangible illustration of humanity’s destruction, The New York Times said.
It is the closest the clock has ever been to midnight since 1947.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ Science and Security Board “called for urgent action to limit nuclear arsenals, create international guidelines on the use of AI, and form multilateral agreements to address global biological threats,” in a news release.
President and CEO Alexandra Bell, said, “The Doomsday Clock’s message cannot be clearer. Catastrophic risks are on the rise, cooperation is on the decline, and we are running out of time. Change is both necessary and possible, but the global community must demand swift action from their leaders.”
The official 2026 Doomsday Clock statement on moving closer to midnight 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. Far too many leaders have grown complacent and indifferent, in many cases adopting rhetoric and policies that accelerate rather than mitigate these existential risks. Because of this failure of leadership, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Science and Security Board today sets the Doomsday Clock at 85 seconds to midnight, the closest it has ever been to catastrophe …"
The group gave suggestions on how to move away from the brink, including:
- The U.S. and Russia discuss limiting nuclear weapons
- Countries can prevent the creation of mirror life and reduce AI biological threats.
- U.S. Congress can backtrack the president’s “war on renewable energy” and provide incentives and investments to reduce fossil fuel use.
- U.S., Russia and China can develop guidelines for the incorporation of AI in the military.
The Doomsday Clock was founded by Manhattan Project veterans, the people who developed the first atomic bombs, The Washington Post reported.
It was set seven minutes to midnight when it was created. The furthest it has been from annihilation was 17 minutes before midnight in 1991, after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War.
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