Former Shadow Minister, Chris Williamson, explains how the behaviour of those in power has dragged the Doomsday Clock close to the point of annihilation.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
— Chris Williamson (@DerbyChrisW) October 17, 2024
The Doomsday Clock is perilously close to midnight, yet our govt still authorised dangerous nuclear war games in the North Sea this week.
Do these lunatics seriously want to provoke war with Russia? pic.twitter.com/guotCSvUSd
The Doomsday Clock Serves as an Enduring Symbol of Humanity’s Vulnerability to Self-inflicted Catastrophe
The Doomsday Clock, a symbolic representation of how close humanity is to global catastrophe, is one of the most recognised and sobering metaphors of our time. Introduced by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists in 1947, it has become a global symbol for the looming dangers that threaten civilisation, not only from nuclear war but increasingly from other human-made threats like climate change, biological threats, and disruptive technologies. With its metaphorical countdown to midnight — representing the annihilation of civilisation — the Doomsday Clock is a chilling reminder of the fragility of our existence. To fully appreciate the significance of this emblem, one must understand its origins, how close it has come to midnight in moments of intense global tension, and the reasons behind these shifts.
The origins of the Doomsday Clock lie in the aftermath of World War II, particularly with the dawn of the nuclear age. Scientists who had been involved in the Manhattan Project, the research effort that led to the development of the first atomic bombs, became deeply concerned about the potential consequences of their work. As the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki demonstrated, nuclear weapons had unparalleled destructive capabilities, posing a direct threat to human civilisation. In 1945, some of these scientists, under the leadership of physicist Albert Einstein and University of Chicago scientists, founded the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists to inform the public about the dangers posed by nuclear weapons and other emerging threats.
In 1947, the Bulletin’s editors sought a visual symbol to convey the urgency of these dangers to a broader audience. Martyl Langsdorf, an artist and the wife of physicist Alexander Langsdorf, who had worked on the Manhattan Project, was tasked with creating the design. Her image, a clock with its hands set at seven minutes to midnight, was meant to suggest that humanity was perilously close to catastrophe. Over time, the clock’s hands have been adjusted forward or backward depending on the state of global affairs. Midnight represents the end of civilisation as we know it, while the number of minutes to midnight symbolises the perceived proximity of that threat.
The first adjustment to the clock occurred in 1949, just two years after its creation. The Soviet Union successfully detonated its first atomic bomb, marking the beginning of the nuclear arms race between the United States and the USSR. In response, the Bulletin moved the clock’s hands forward by four minutes, setting it at three minutes to midnight. This adjustment reflected the fact that for the first time in history, two nations possessed the power to annihilate each other and much of the planet with nuclear weapons. The clock remained close to midnight throughout much of the Cold War, a period characterised by heightened tensions between the superpowers, frequent nuclear tests, and the proliferation of increasingly powerful weapons.
One of the most dangerous moments during this period came in 1962, during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The United States and the Soviet Union came perilously close to nuclear war when American reconnaissance discovered Soviet ballistic missiles in Cuba, just 90 miles from the coast of Florida. For thirteen tense days, the world watched as President John F. Kennedy and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev navigated a high-stakes diplomatic standoff. In the end, both sides agreed to a deal that saw the missiles withdrawn from Cuba in exchange for the United States secretly removing its own nuclear missiles from Turkey. Although the Doomsday Clock did not move that year, the Cuban Missile Crisis is widely regarded as the closest the world has come to nuclear war — and thus, midnight on the Doomsday Clock.
The years following the Cuban Missile Crisis saw a brief period of relative stability in the nuclear arms race. In 1963, the United States, the Soviet Union, and the United Kingdom signed the Partial Test Ban Treaty, which prohibited nuclear tests in the atmosphere, outer space, and underwater. This was the first significant arms control agreement of the nuclear age and signalled a willingness by the superpowers to take steps toward reducing the risk of nuclear war. In response to these developments, the Bulletin moved the clock’s hands backward to twelve minutes to midnight in 1963.
However, this period of optimism was short-lived. By the 1970s, both the United States and the Soviet Union had developed massive arsenals of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), capable of delivering nuclear warheads to each other’s cities within minutes. The Bulletin responded by moving the clock forward again, setting it at nine minutes to midnight in 1974. Tensions remained high throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s, culminating in another close call during the Able Archer 83 exercise in 1983. This NATO military exercise, which simulated a nuclear attack on the Soviet Union, was interpreted by some in the Soviet leadership as a possible prelude to a real attack, bringing the world once again to the brink of nuclear conflict.
The end of the Cold War in 1991 marked a turning point for the Doomsday Clock. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the signing of significant arms reduction treaties such as the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), the Bulletin’s scientists moved the clock back to seventeen minutes to midnight, the furthest from midnight it has ever been. This was a time of optimism, when many believed that the threat of nuclear war had diminished significantly and that the world was moving towards a more peaceful and stable future.
But the respite was temporary. The clock began to inch closer to midnight again in the years following the Cold War as new threats emerged. One of the most significant factors in the clock’s movement in the 21st century has been the threat of climate change. In 2007, the Bulletin for the first time included global warming as a major factor in setting the clock’s time. This decision reflected the growing recognition that environmental degradation, if left unchecked, could have catastrophic consequences for human civilisation, potentially rivaling the devastation of a nuclear war. The Bulletin’s scientists noted that “climate change also presents a dire challenge to humanity,” adding that “the dangers posed by climate change are nearly as dire as those posed by nuclear weapons.”
Since then, the Doomsday Clock has continued to move closer to midnight, reflecting the escalating threats from both nuclear weapons and climate change, as well as emerging dangers from technological advancements. For example, in 2018, the clock was set at two minutes to midnight, the closest it had been since the height of the Cold War in 1953. The Bulletin cited several factors for this alarming shift, including the modernisation of nuclear arsenals by countries such as the United States, Russia, and China, the collapse of arms control agreements like the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, and the lack of significant progress in addressing climate change.
The COVID-19 pandemic, which began in 2020, added a new layer of complexity to the risks considered by the Doomsday Clock. In January 2021, the clock remained at 100 seconds to midnight, the closest it had ever been to global catastrophe. The Bulletin noted that the pandemic had “revealed just how unprepared and unwilling countries and the international system are to handle global emergencies properly,” further emphasising that biological threats, whether natural or human-made, now join nuclear weapons and climate change as existential risks.
What is it that keeps moving the hands of the Doomsday Clock closer to midnight? One of the primary culprits is the failure of global leadership. In 2021, Rachel Bronson, the president of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, remarked: “The hands of the Doomsday Clock remain at 100 seconds to midnight because of the lack of global leaders’ response to multiple crises… Whether it’s nuclear risk, climate change, or pandemics, leaders must do better.” The lack of coordinated international action to address these interconnected crises has been a recurring theme in recent assessments of the clock.
The development and modernisation of nuclear weapons continue to be a significant factor in the clock’s proximity to midnight. The United States, Russia, China, and other nations have all engaged in efforts to upgrade their nuclear arsenals, which includes developing new types of weapons that some analysts fear could make nuclear conflict more likely. Moreover, the dismantling of key arms control treaties, such as the INF Treaty in 2019, has raised concerns about a new nuclear arms race. Without these agreements, there is little to prevent an unchecked build-up of weapons, increasing the likelihood of a catastrophic miscalculation.
In addition to nuclear and environmental threats, technological advances have introduced new challenges that have pushed the Doomsday Clock closer to midnight. One of the most significant of these is artificial intelligence (AI). While AI has the potential to bring about tremendous benefits in fields such as healthcare, transportation, and energy, it also poses risks if misused or inadequately controlled. Autonomous weapons systems, for example, could dramatically increase the speed and destructiveness of warfare, making conflicts harder to control and more likely to spiral out of control. AI could also be used in cyber warfare, targeting critical infrastructure like power grids, financial systems, or communications networks, leading to cascading failures that could cripple entire nations.
Furthermore, disinformation and the erosion of trust in institutions have been increasingly recognised as destabilising factors that contribute to the worsening global security situation. In recent years, the proliferation of fake news, conspiracy theories, and state-sponsored disinformation campaigns have undermined the ability of governments and societies to respond effectively to crises. The COVID-19 pandemic, in particular, demonstrated how disinformation could hinder efforts to manage global emergencies. The widespread dissemination of misinformation about the virus, vaccines, and public health measures not only complicated efforts to contain the pandemic but also contributed to a loss of faith in scientific expertise and institutions.
Since 2022, the situation in Ukraine, Gaza and Lebanon has dragged the world closer to the brink. Alongside all the other factors identified above, stepping back is becoming much more challenging. Does humanity even have the will to do so anymore? Is it beginning to accept its own fate? Has greed and ignorance finally caught up with us?
In recent years, there has been a growing sense that humanity has lost the collective will to avert the inevitable disasters looming on the horizon. Despite overwhelming evidence of the catastrophic consequences of inaction — from escalating climate change to unchecked nuclear proliferation and the rise of disruptive technologies — global leaders and societies seem paralysed by short-term interests, political division, and apathy. The repeated failures to enact meaningful, coordinated solutions suggest that many have resigned themselves to a bleak future, viewing the encroaching threats as too complex or distant to tackle. This resignation, fuelled by disillusionment and an erosion of trust in institutions, hints at a troubling indifference, as if humanity has accepted the path to midnight as inevitable rather than preventable.
The Doomsday Clock has become more than just a symbol of nuclear peril; it is now a barometer of the many intertwined risks that threaten human survival. It serves as a powerful reminder that the threats we face are not just theoretical. As Sir Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal and former President of the Royal Society, has noted: “The Doomsday Clock reminds us that humanity’s future depends on international cooperation and a shared understanding of global risks. No one nation can confront these dangers alone.”
In the face of such overwhelming challenges, it can be easy to fall into despair. However, the Doomsday Clock is not meant to predict our fate but to warn us of the consequences of our actions; or inaction. It is a call to action, a reminder that we still have the power to move the hands of the clock away from midnight if we are willing to confront the threats that endanger us all. As Albert Einstein once remarked: “The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking, and thus we drift toward unparalleled catastrophe. We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if mankind is to survive.”
Therefore, the Doomsday Clock serves as an enduring symbol of humanity’s vulnerability to self-inflicted catastrophe. From its origins in the nuclear age to its expansion to encompass climate change, biological threats, and disruptive technologies, the clock reflects the mounting dangers we face as a species. Its hands, always ticking closer to midnight, are a reminder that the future of humanity is in our hands; and that we must act now to avert the worst, if we still have the desire.
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