90 seconds before midnight, we have never been so close to a global catastrophe.

Jack L. Rozdilsky, York University, Canada and Christian Faise Kanaan, York University, Canada

On January 24, history repeated itself. That day, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moved the second hand of the Doomsday Clock to midnight. Now he is 90 seconds away from a symbolic global catastrophe.

The announcement, made during a press conference in Washington DC, was made in English, Ukrainian and Russian. A released statement describes the historic moment as “a moment of unprecedented peril”.

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ Science and Safety Council is responsible for the movement of the hands of the Doomsday Clock. These leading experts focus on the dangers associated with potential man-made disasters arising from nuclear risks, climate change, biological threats and disruptive technologies.

The Doomsday Clock is the most graphic representation of these threats, and the act of setting the clock forward represents a clear and urgent need to keep an eye on what is happening.

In 2021 and 2022, the clock hands were set to 100 seconds after midnight. Because this timekeeping exercise began in 1947, the January 24, 2023 announcement represents the closest time the clock has run out: a clear wake-up call.

Threats over time

In 1945, a group of scientists working on the Manhattan Project—an American atomic weapons research project—came together to form the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

In the late 1940s, the new threat of nuclear weapons clouded the world. The Doomsday Clock was intended as a warning to mankind of the dangers of this technology. Later, in the 20th century, it was expanded to deal with other threats of human origin.

In 1991, the clock was set to 17 minutes past midnight, the furthest from the end of the world. This change came after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the signing of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty by the United States and Russia. In the 1990s, the world felt somewhat safer.

In the 2010s, we came very close to the brink of nuclear war, although not as close as we are now.

US relations with other global nuclear powers such as Russia and China have become increasingly strained. The nuclear deal with Iran was canceled, which affected the geopolitics of the Middle East. The threat from North Korea’s nuclear arsenal has entered a worrying new phase. Combined with the dangerous rhetoric of former President Donald Trump and the global rise of the far right, everything pointed to a turbulent time in the 2020s.

In 2023, the global crises we face will have devastating and potentially longer-term impacts. Our current moment is unsustainable, especially as catastrophic threats multiply and intensify.

The crises are piling up and range from the Russian invasion of Ukraine with Vladimir Putin’s thinly veiled nuclear threats to the social and economic tensions that are still present in the third year of the Covid-19 pandemic. These are unprecedented challenges to human survival.

doomsday anxiety

With the Doomsday Clock now showing 90 seconds to midnight, the situation is adding stress to an already anxious world population.

In Europe, fears of Covid-19 quickly gave way to fears of nuclear war.

Anxiety caused by fear of death is linked to nuclear anxiety, and the threat of nuclear war caused by daily headlines can shape the way we think and act.

Nuclear weapons are particularly existentially troubling because weapons of mass destruction have the potential to destroy cultures, lands, languages, and entire lives. In the event of a nuclear attack, the future will be changed in ways we cannot imagine.

Philosopher Langdon Winner wrote that “in the post-World War II era, we all became, in a sense, unwitting subjects in a vast series of biological and social experiments, the results of which only gradually emerged.”

For those who grew up during the height of the Cold War in the mid-20th century and up until the early 1980s, the resurgence of these issues is deja vu. To counteract this recurring fear, coping tools include limiting media exposure, reaching out to others, cultivating compassion, and changing routines.

The time has come to act now

The meaning of the Doomsday Clock as a metaphor is a graphic symbol of the multiplication of man-made dangers. As midnight approaches, the severity of the threat intensifies.

Regardless of whether we live in one of the nine nuclear powers, we have all become unwitting subjects of an experiment that began with the explosion of the first atomic weapon.

In 2023, the Doomsday Clock tells us that we are a metaphorical 90 seconds away from self-destruction. Time is short.

Jack L. Rozdilsky, Associate Professor, Department of Disaster and Emergency Management, York University, Canada and Christian Faise Kanaan, MSc student, Disaster and Emergency Management, York University, Canada

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original.