Saturday, July 26, 2025
  • Who’sWho Africa AWARDS
  • About Time Africa Magazine
  • Contact Us
Time Africa Magazine
  • Home
  • Magazine
  • WHO’SWHO AWARDS
  • News
  • World News
    • US
    • UAE
    • Europe
    • UK
    • Israel-Hamas
    • Russia-Ukraine
  • Politics
  • Crime
  • Lifestyle
  • Sports
  • Column
  • Interviews
  • Special Report
No Result
View All Result
Time Africa Magazine
  • Home
  • Magazine
  • WHO’SWHO AWARDS
  • News
  • World News
    • US
    • UAE
    • Europe
    • UK
    • Israel-Hamas
    • Russia-Ukraine
  • Politics
  • Crime
  • Lifestyle
  • Sports
  • Column
  • Interviews
  • Special Report
No Result
View All Result
Time Africa Magazine
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • WHO’SWHO AWARDS
  • News
  • Magazine
  • World News

Home » World News » Doomsday Clock Says World Remains ‘100 Seconds’ From Disaster

Doomsday Clock Says World Remains ‘100 Seconds’ From Disaster

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists said the clock’s position would remain unchanged from 2020, when its hands were set as close as they had ever been to a catastrophic “midnight.” | By MARIA CRAMER

February 3, 2025
in World News
0
(Images: The Official CTBTO Photostream | Flickr / PxHere)

(Images: The Official CTBTO Photostream | Flickr / PxHere)

543
SHARES
4.5k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Humanity is 100 seconds away from total annihilation. Again.

That is according to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, a nonprofit organization and publication whose signature Doomsday Clock has been estimating — in the stark terms of “minutes to midnight” — how close the world is to apocalypse since 1947.

“The collective wisdom of our group is that it’s a wildly dangerous time with some incredibly important bright spots,” Rachel Bronson, the executive director and publisher of the bulletin, said on Wednesday.

The clock remains set at “100 seconds to midnight” — unchanged from last year, when its hands were moved as close as they had ever been to midnight. At the time, the bulletin said the shift was meant to reflect heightened tensions and deteriorated communication between the United States and other countries, including Russia and Iran.

ReadAlso

Hundreds Dead From Hunger in Gaza, Including Dozens of Children

Doomsday Clock Moves One Second Closer to Catastrophe

This year, scientists pointed to the woeful response of world leaders to the coronavirus pandemic, the erosion of the public’s faith in science and government institutions, the acceleration of nuclear weapons programs, and the persistent threat of climate change.

A city is seen burning in an artistic imagining of a man-made apocalypse. With the Doomsday Clock at 100 seconds to midnight, could this happen soon? (photo credit: PIXABAY)

The time has been inching closer to midnight since 2018, when the clock was set at two minutes to 12.

ADVERTISEMENT

The last time it was that close was in 1953, after the United States and the Soviet Union tested their first thermonuclear weapons.

“Next year, as always, we hope to move the hands of the Doomsday Clock away from midnight,” Dr. Bronson said.

The bulletin’s Science and Security Board, which is composed of nuclear and climate experts and other scientists, meets twice a year to discuss how world events should dictate where the clock’s hands will fall.

They discuss if humanity is safer or at greater risk than it was at the same time last year or compared with 75 years ago, Dr. Bronson said.

Even though scientists decide what time will be shown on the clock, it is not a scientific or even a physical instrument, but a symbolic one.

And the annual warning has generated some skepticism.

“If I’m being charitable, I say, OK, they are part of a broader effort to focus collective attention on pressing immediate concerns or longer-term things that could have catastrophic consequences, like climate change,” said Andrew Latham, a professor of international relations at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn.

“But it’s like the boy who cried wolf,” he said. “After a certain period of time, we’re not going to pay attention.”

The board has projected optimism about the world’s future before. In 1990, as the Cold War drew to an end, the clock was set at 10 minutes to midnight. The next year, it was a full 17 minutes away, the farthest humanity has been from projected annihilation since the introduction of the Doomsday Clock.

(Because the clock is not updated in real time, some geopolitical shifts are over and done with too quickly to register. In 1962, for instance, its hands were not moved in response to the Cuban missile crisis because “too little was known at the time about the circumstances of the standoff or what the outcome would be,” the bulletin explains on its website.)

The board said this year there was reason to have hope, pointing to President Biden’s decision to rejoin the Paris Agreement and his intention to rejoin the Iran nuclear deal.

On Tuesday, Mr. Biden and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia avoided a renewed arms race when they formally agreed to extend the last remaining nuclear arms treaty between their countries.

“The election of an American president who acknowledges climate change as a profound threat and supports international cooperation and science-based policy puts the world on a much better footing to address global problems,” said Susan Solomon, professor of environmental studies at M.I.T. and a member of the bulletin’s science board.

Jerry Brown, the former California governor who is the bulletin’s executive chairman, said political leaders had failed to convey to the public the real threat posed by nuclear weapons.

“It’s time to get real and stop building nuclear weapons and find a way to eliminate them from the entire world,” Mr. Brown, a Democrat, said on Wednesday.

Mr. Brown added: “It’s 100 seconds to midnight. Wake up.”

Despite such proclamations, the public should not panic, Dr. Latham said.

The time shown on the Doomsday Clock is based not on an algorithm that analyzes objective data, he said, but on the concerns of intelligent, well-intentioned people using available information and consulting one another.

The clock is “a relic of a bygone era, an artifact of an Armageddon-any-minute-now mind-set,” Dr. Latham said.

Still, he added, that is no reason to ignore it.

“Once a year, it reminds us that there are some big dangers out there,” he said. “They’re all man-made, and that means maybe they can be man-unmade.”

• Maria Cramer is a breaking news reporter on the Express Desk.

Tags: Doomsday Clockworld
ADVERTISEMENT
Previous Post

Doomsday Clock Moves One Second Closer to Catastrophe

Next Post

Atiku, Your Political Desperation Is Responsible For PDP’S Catastrophic Disintegration

You MayAlso Like

Middle-East

The Taliban are remaking Afghanistan in their image. It should have us all worried

July 25, 2025
Middle-East

Hundreds Dead From Hunger in Gaza, Including Dozens of Children

July 25, 2025
Thai soldiers are seen during a visit by Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, following armed clashes on a disputed border area between Cambodia and Thailand, at a makeshift camp in Surin province, 30 km (19 miles) from the Thai-Cambodia border, April 27, 2011. Thai and Cambodian troops clashed with heavy artillery for a sixth day on Wednesday near two disputed 12th-century Hindu temples, the Cambodian defense ministry said following a night of shelling that killed a Thai villager. To date, the fighting has killed at least 14 people and sent more than 50,000 into evacuation centres. REUTERS/Sukree Sukplang (THAILAND - Tags: POLITICS MILITARY CONFLICT)
World News

The Fighting Between Thailand and Cambodia Isn’t About Territory

July 25, 2025
UAE

How Saudi Arabia’s Sleeping Prince was kept alive For 20 years on a hospital ventilator

July 20, 2025
World News

Pope Leo XIV condemns ‘barbarity’ of Gaza war as dozens reported killed queuing for aid

July 20, 2025
UAE

‘Sleeping Prince’ from Saudi Arabia dies after 20 years in coma following London car crash

July 20, 2025
Next Post

Atiku, Your Political Desperation Is Responsible For PDP’S Catastrophic Disintegration

President Tinubu Concludes Visit To Tanzania, Affirms Nigeria's Commitment To Improved Electricity Access

Discussion about this post

‘Sleeping Prince’ from Saudi Arabia dies after 20 years in coma following London car crash

Experts reveal the truth about cholesterol – and how it impacts your health

Celebrating Dr. Prince Lawrence Ezeh at 55

EXPOSED: How Delta State Polytechnic Chairman Lied About Governor’s Directive in Certificate Scandal

Gov Mbah Reshuffles Cabinet, Swears-in Head of Service, 6 Commissioners

Meet 103-Year-Old Virgin Still Waiting For Boyfriend Who Abandoned Her Years Ago

  • British government apologizes to Peter Obi, as hired impostors, master manipulators on rampage abroad

    1238 shares
    Share 495 Tweet 310
  • Maids trafficked and sold to wealthy Saudis on black market

    1065 shares
    Share 426 Tweet 266
  • Flight Attendant Sees Late Husband On Plane

    968 shares
    Share 387 Tweet 242
  • ‘Céline Dion Dead 2023’: Singer killed By Internet Death Hoax

    902 shares
    Share 360 Tweet 225
  • Crisis echoes, fears grow in Amechi Awkunanaw in Enugu State

    735 shares
    Share 294 Tweet 184
  • Trending
  • Comments
  • Latest

British government apologizes to Peter Obi, as hired impostors, master manipulators on rampage abroad

April 13, 2023

Maids trafficked and sold to wealthy Saudis on black market

December 27, 2022
Flight Attendant Sees Late Husband On Plane

Flight Attendant Sees Late Husband On Plane

September 22, 2023
‘Céline Dion Dead 2023’: Singer killed By Internet Death Hoax

‘Céline Dion Dead 2023’: Singer killed By Internet Death Hoax

March 21, 2023
Chief Mrs Ebelechukwu, wife of Willie Obiano, former governor of Anambra state

NIGERIA: No, wife of Biafran warlord, Bianca Ojukwu lied – Ebele Obiano:

0

SOUTH AFRICA: TO LEAVE OR NOT TO LEAVE?

0
kelechi iheanacho

TOP SCORER: IHEANACHA

0
Goodluck Ebele Jonathan

WHAT CAN’TBE TAKEN AWAY FROM JONATHAN

0

Ogilisi Igbo Sails to Mexico from Houston, Advocates for Tourism Growth in Nigeria

July 26, 2025

Gold Miners Feared Dead in Congo After Landslide

July 25, 2025

Devastating UK aid cuts are a matter of life and death for women in Africa

July 25, 2025

Heat And Pests Are Creating A Deadly Cocktail For Our Foods

July 25, 2025

ABOUT US

Time Africa Magazine

TIME AFRICA MAGAZINE is an African Magazine with a culture of excellence; a magazine without peer. Nearly a third of its readers hold advanced degrees and include novelists, … READ MORE >>

SECTIONS

  • Aviation
  • Column
  • Crime
  • Europe
  • Featured
  • Gallery
  • Health
  • Interviews
  • Israel-Hamas
  • Lifestyle
  • Magazine
  • Middle-East
  • News
  • Politics
  • Press Release
  • Russia-Ukraine
  • Science
  • Special Report
  • Sports
  • TV/Radio
  • UAE
  • UK
  • US
  • World News

Useful Links

  • AllAfrica
  • Channel Africa
  • El Khabar
  • The Guardian
  • Cairo Live
  • Le Republicain
  • Magazine: 9771144975608
  • Subscribe to TIME AFRICA biweekly news magazine

    Enjoy handpicked stories from around African continent,
    delivered anywhere in the world

    Subscribe

    • About Time Africa Magazine
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact Us
    • WHO’SWHO AWARDS

    © 2025 Time Africa Magazine - All Right Reserved. Time Africa is a trademark of Times Associates, registered in the U.S, & Nigeria. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Service.

    No Result
    View All Result
    • WHO’SWHO AWARDS
    • Politics
    • Column
    • Interviews
    • Gallery
    • Lifestyle
    • Special Report
    • Sports
    • TV/Radio
    • Aviation
    • Health
    • Science
    • World News

    © 2025 Time Africa Magazine - All Right Reserved. Time Africa is a trademark of Times Associates, registered in the U.S, & Nigeria. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Service.

    This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.