Doomsday Clock: 5 Minutes to Midnight

Five Minutes to Midnight on the Doomsday Clock

On January 10, 2012, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists moved the Doomsday Clock to five minutes to midnight (11:55pm).

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Doomsday Clock Moves Closer to Midnight

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What is the Doomsday Clock?

The Doomsday Clock has nothing to do with 2012 predictions, but is a graphic representation of how close we, as a species are to killing ourselves.

The analysis of where the minute hand points is based on economic, political and ecological factors, and is decided by the science and security board of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists (BAS).

In Watchmen, the graphic novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, the Doomsday Clock was also at five minutes to midnight. However, Doctor Manhattan and Adrien Veidt are fictional characters; we'll leave it to Watchmen fans to argue over whether that's good or bad.

In commenting on the Doomsday Clock change, BAS co-chair Lawrence Krauss said, "Unfortunately, Einstein's statement in 1946 that 'everything has changed, save the way we think,' remains true.  The provisional developments of 2 years ago have not been sustained, and it makes sense to move the clock closer to midnight, back to the value it had in 2007. Faced with clear and present dangers of nuclear proliferation and climate change, and the need to find sustainable and safe sources of energy, world leads are failing to change business as usual. Inaction on key issues including climate change, and rising international tensions motivate the movement of the clock.  As we see it, the major challenge at the heart of humanity's survival in the 21stcentury is how to meet energy needs for economic growth in developing and industrial countries without further damaging the climate, exposing people to loss of health and community, and without risking further spread of nuclear weapons, and in fact setting the stage for global reductions."

The Doomsday Clock ticks both ways: when the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists thinks that the world is moving towards stability and sustainable existence, the clock ticks away from midnight: it was almost exactly a year ago that the Doomsday Clock ticked back to six minutes to midnight.

• Doomsday Clock Timeline

The furthest back that the Doomsday Clock has ever been set was 11:43pm; that was after the US and the Soviet Union signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty in 1991.