Doomsday Clock remains at 90 seconds to midnight | Tech News

The Doomsday Clock has been set to remain at 90 seconds from midnight which is the closest we has ever been from human annihilation.

The 2024 update reflects the severity of human-made global catastrophes, with the clock hands edging towards 12 o’clock as the conflict in Ukraine, the Israel-Hamas war and increasing tensions between China and Taiwan rage on.

The threat of nuclear catastrophe has also ‘never been so great’ after Russia predicted ‘new rivers of blood will flow’ after building the world’s largest missile.

North Korea is also strengthening its nuclear arsenal, with leader Kim Jong-un ordering his military to destroy the US and South Korea is provoked.

Climate change has also been a major factor in pushing the clock hands forward, with wildfires, landslides and flooding claiming the lives of 12,000 people last year, according to Save the Children.

The symbolic clock is set by clock is set the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, who last year set it at 90 seconds to midnight siting the ‘unprecedented danger’ of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Rachel Bronson, the president and CEO of the  Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, told Metro: ‘Each year, we ask two questions. Is humanity safer, or at greater risk this year, compared to last year when we last set it? 

‘And is humanity safer, or at greater risk this year compared to the last 75 plus years?’

In 2020 the clock was set at 100 seconds to midnight and remained unchanged for the next three years.

They first set the clock to be seven minutes away from midnight in 1947.

Some years, the hands do not move, signifying the global situation has remained the same.

In 1991, the clock hands were even moved backwards as the Cold War came to an end, and the US and the Soviet Union signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.

Eryn MacDonald, who is a member of the Union of Concerned Scientists warned although the time is not improving, people are paying more attention.

‘Things are not getting better, they seem to be getting worse instead, unfortunately. But paying attention to these things actually does matter, that’s helped in the past,’ she told Metro.

‘People are paying more attention to these issues than they have been for a very long time.

‘Unfortunately, that’s because it’s gotten a lot more dangerous again, and that’s kind of when people start to pay attention.’

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

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