The doomsday clock is a metaphorical clock that indicates how close humanity is to its own extinction. Discover everything about this watch in this article.
Since the beginning of this year 2023, what has come to be called the Clock of the End of the World has been in operation. there are those who call it “Doomsday Clock” or “Doomsday Clock”, since it is adjusted in such a way that it always marks 90 seconds to midnight (at which point life as we know it would end). It is scary to think that the end of human existence is so close to the end.
One of the main triggers has been Putin’s war in Ukraine. The threats made by the Moscow government set off all the alarm bells, and that is the use of nuclear weapons so close to NATO borders It could mean the unleashing of a nuclear war of dimensions unknown to the human being. This mixed with the existence of large nuclear power plants in Ukraine, such as that of Zaporizhia, could release an amount of radioactive material into the air that would cause irreparable damage to humanity.
Energy crisis and the doomsday clock
Another of the serious consequences of the war in Ukraine, perhaps less evident and more indirect, is the acceleration of climate change. This is so because as a consequence of the war, the countries that depended the most on Russian oil and gas, far from reducing gas consumption, have made millionaire investments in infrastructure to be able to continue supplying themselves with gas from another source, or there are even those who have returned to the coal combustion (yes, like in the 19th century). It should have been the other way around, the Russian energy crisis should have led to an undoubted commitment to renewable energy, but when it comes to economics and money, climate change tends to take second place. It is only interesting to take the photo, but in a short time the politicians will only be able to take the photo next to the doomsday clock.
In the image we see an example of a coal-fired power plant in India. Source: Wikimedia Commons
As I said, there are those who have even returned to the combustion of coal. Because? because the explosion of gas prices has made the coal become very competitive again, and this has generated a very strong increase in the combustion of this resource that is considered as one of the most polluting on the planet. The consequences are not long in coming and, as a result, greenhouse gas emissions have reached a new record in the year 2022. Therefore, once we know these data, the fact that the clock shows 90 seconds to the end of the world surprises us less.
It is clear that this clock, which is actually a virtual clock, is primarily a concept, a metaphor for how close the world and humanity are to the precipice. It is a metaphorical, and even philosophical, way of measuring how much time we have left before we self-annihilate. In this metaphor, midnight would represent the end of the world.
Let’s see together how this doomsday clock actually works; let’s find out who are the people who decide when your time changes (represented by its hands), and what events behind the time change.
In the beginning it was a nuclear clock
The concept of a clock that marked the time of the end of the world was developed after the conclusion of the Second World War, exactly in the year 1947. This watch was conceived by the University of Chicago Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, whose founder was Albert Einstein. This association was formed mainly by scientists who had worked in the manhattan project, which resulted in first atomic bomb in history. The invention of the nuclear weapon gave mankind a mass destruction capacity almost total, a capacity to threaten his own existence.
Albert Einstein was one of the scientists responsible for the creation of the doomsday clock. Source: Wikimedia Commons
It was in this sense that the concept of the doomsday clock was developed, with the intention of assess the possibility of a global nuclear war, thus highlighting the real threat of proliferation of nuclear weapons by highly militarized countries such as United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). But it did not stop there, but in 2007, the scientists from the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists included new risks, such as: climate change, the rise of terrorism the resumption of the nuclear arms race on a global scale, the risk of computer attacks (cyberattacks), the hydrocarbons crisis (peak oil price and production; oil geopolitics) and even other risks associated with the explosion of new technologies throughout the world.
Who decides the time shown by the doomsday clock?
Some time ago, the editor of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists at the University of Chicago, the scientist Eugene Rabinowitch, it decided the movements of the hands and the time displayed. With excellent fluency in the Russian language, and being at the same time a leader of international disarmament movements, Rabinowitch always exchanges opinions with experts and technicians from all parts of the planet, in order to determine the time that the clock should show. Thanks to his experience, he was able to write a kind of manual / tutorial in the newsletter that explained to his successors what elements and characteristics to take into account when determining the time of the doomsday clock. Since he died in 1973, the Science and Safety Council of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists has been in charge and, for this purpose, meets twice a year. They first discuss various world events, and later, decide how to change the time that marks the clock if they deem it necessary.
This council is made up of diverse scientists and other types of experts with a deep Knowledge of nuclear and weather weapons technologies. These two are considered necessary skills to be able to calculate the threats that exist on humanity and thus evaluate the time that remains before the end of the world.
Nuclear weapons at a North Korean parade. Source: Wikimedia Commons
The hands are approaching midnight.
If we evaluate the evolution of the clock hands and the time they have been indicating, it would be possible for us to match the 25 times it has been set with a major event in history. In relation to the events that lead to the advance of the needle, the most important of all have been related to the development of nuclear weapons. For example, in the year 1949, exactly two years after the creation of the clock, the USSR successfully tested its first atomic bomb and became the second nuclear power, behind the United States. What caused this? Well, the hands that indicated 23:53 began to indicate 23:57. A considerable advance, considering that a minute represents a long time on this watch. The reason for this change seems very obvious: two nuclear powers with conflicting interests and ideologically at the antipodes, they endow themselves with nuclear weapons. The end of the world had never been so close back then.
Another great date for the doomsday clock, since it was a time of great tension, was the allocation by India and Pakistan of nuclear weapons as a deterrent measure in the event of an attack by the other. This event made the hands move forward 5 minutes, because on top of all that, the United States and the USSR were flagrantly reneging on their commitment to nuclear disarmament. In addition, today the scientific journal takes into account risks associated with threats other than nuclear energy, so it is possible to mention the modifications that have been linked to climate change. So, for example, in the year 2015, the doomsday clock was moved forward two minutes due to insufficient action to prevent catastrophic global warming. And it is that, the year 2014 had been the hottest since the year 1880. It was at this very moment that the United States and Russia launched gigantic programs to modernize their nuclear arsenals and they ended up breaking several agreements and advances in the field of nuclear reduction and disarmament.
How to turn back the doomsday clock
Luckily for humanity, the history of humanity has not only known events that bring us closer to the end of the world. Well, as an example, the two main powers, the United States and the Soviet Union, they came to cooperate and negotiate agreements aimed at reducing their respective nuclear risks. Or, also as an example, in 1963, both countries signed the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, which limited testing of nuclear devices in the Earth’s atmosphere. At that moment, at the same time, the clock goes back 5 minutes and the world moves a little further from its end. And finally, in 1991, the United States and the Soviet Union signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. This treaty was a great step in disarmament since the invention of the atomic bomb. Shortly after the signing, in December of that same year, the USSR completely disintegrated. It was the moment in which the clock has been furthest from midnight since its creation, it marked 23:41.
President Reagan and the General Secretary of the Soviet Union Gorbachev meeting before the collapse of the USSR. Source: Wikimedia Commons
What is the doomsday clock?
The Doomsday Clock is a metaphorical clock devised by a group of scientists from the University of Chicago, and whose objective is to indicate how close our planet and our species are to their own self-destruction.