At the beginning of last year, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists decided to keep at three minutes the time separating us from our end, extending the decision made in 2015. But the world barely needed twelve months to change completely. Deteriorating international relations, fragmented blocs, ignored ecological crises, and policies that threaten to erase recent achievements could lead to a very significant advance of the clock. Several sources speculate that we will be left at one minute from darkness. And we were never at one minute...
A Brief History of the Doomsday Clock
The year was 1953. The United States and the Soviet Union detonated their first thermonuclear weapons just nine months apart. The prototypes began to be more robust, stable, and destructive. The Doomsday Clock had only been in existence for six years, but its custodians decided that nuclear tests were reason enough to place the human species at two minutes to midnight. The clock never returned to that level, however, it was at three minutes in 1984, and it is at three minutes today, for the second consecutive year. That said, how does a world at one minute from the end sound...?
What Will the Bulletin Announce?
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has not made its announcement yet. In fact, we will have to wait a few hours to find out. But in general there is no doubt that the clock will be altered. What the different sources ask is how much. The modifications are calculated based on positive and negative aspects. Being honest, I don't think 2016 left us many good things. The advance of nationalism, people who deny climate change in positions of power, a global security crisis (both physical and cyber), and the constant rejection of scientifically proven facts present a bleak panorama.
The more conservative media suggest that the bulletin will position the clock at two minutes, just like in 1953. But perhaps a stronger message needs to be sent, and there are those who suggest that the clock will be left at only one minute. Since its introduction in 1947, the clock has never left us at one minute to midnight. They say there is always a first time for everything...
(Editor's note, Jan 27: The correction left the clock at two minutes and thirty seconds to midnight)
