89 Seconds to the Apocalypse February 3, 2025

“We did not see progress in 2024,” reported Daniel Holz, Science and Security Board chair for the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, at today’s unveiling of the Doomsday Clock. It is now 89 seconds to the end of the world as we’ve known it, as reported by the Bulletin at its annual report on the state of the world as nuclear weapons, global warming, “disruptive” technologies like AI, and concerns about future pandemics continue to threaten the health and well-being of mankind.

“We’re still building weapons,” Holz said of the nuclear Armageddon that midnight represents. “Our arms control treaties are in tatters.”

Initiated 75 years ago by scientists with the Manhattan Project, the time recorded on the Doomsday Clock in 2023 moved from minutes away to seconds: 90 of them. 2024 remained steady at the disturbing 90-second deadline, the closest the clock has ever been to the dark stroke of midnight. This year the clock is a second closer to the end point. That may not seem like a lot, but one second represents a dire outlook.

“The clock is moving forward,” said Holz. “We did not see progress.”

The clock in 2025 “is a stark diagnosis of our reality,” he continued. “All of us need to raise the alarm. Every second counts.”

Read more at The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

Highlights of the Atomic Clock announcement today, January 28, 2025.

• The countries that possess nuclear weapons are increasing the size and role of their arsenals, investing hundreds of billions of dollars in weapons that can destroy civilization.
• The long-term prognosis for the world’s attempts to deal with climate change remains poor, as most governments fail to enact the financing and policy initiatives necessary to halt global warming. 
• Emerging and re-emerging diseases continue to threaten the economy, society, and security of the world. 
• An array of disruptive technologies in fields such as artificial intelligence and space flight advanced last year in ways that make the world more dangerous.  

The dangers listed above are greatly exacerbated by numerous and potent threat multipliers, the panelists noted: climate change and the spread of misinformation, disinformation, and conspiracy theories “that degrade the communication ecosystem and increasingly blur the line between truth and falsehood.”