Doomsday Clock 2023: Is the world close to ending? Scientists to reveal estimates – National | Globalnews.ca

Are we getting close to “doomsday”?

Atomic scientists are set to give an estimate on how close they believe humanity is to annihilation due to existential threats such as nuclear war and climate change.

The keepers of the Doomsday Clock will make an announcement at 10 am E.T. about whether they will change the time on it. You can watch it live on globalnews.ca.

The Doomsday Clock is a metaphor that visualizes the threat humanity faces from unchecked scientific and technological advances, according to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists — a group of experts in nuclear weapons, biological weapons and climate change.

The hands of the clock are moved closer to or further away from midnight based on the scientists’ reading of existential threats at a particular time.

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Doomsday clock remains at 100 seconds to midnight, scientists warn

Doomsday occurs at midnight, so the closer to midnight the clock is set, the more peril they believe the world is in.

The clock was set at 100 seconds to midnight in 2020 — the closest it has ever been to midnight — and has remained unchanged since.

This year, its setting will reflect for the first time a world in which Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has revived fears of nuclear war.

Since its debut in 1947, the minute hand on the Doomsday Clock has been moved 24 times.

— with files from Reuters 

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