Doomsday Clock Ticks to 89 Seconds to Midnight, Marking Highest-Ever Risk Level
Joe Lyons •
January 28, 2025
Doomsday Clock Ticks to 89 Seconds to Midnight, Marking Highest-Ever Risk Level
January 28, 2025 – The Doomsday Clock now stands at 89 seconds to midnight, the closest it has ever been to signaling global catastrophe in its 78-year history, according to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ Science and Security Board. The announcement was made today at the U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington, D.C., warning of an unprecedented level of global risk.
The Doomsday Clock, established in 1947, was designed as a symbolic measure of how close humanity is to self-destruction due to existential threats, including nuclear weapons, climate change, and emerging technologies. The concept was introduced by Albert Einstein, Manhattan Project director J. Robert Oppenheimer, and scientists from the University of Chicago—many of whom played key roles in the development of the first atomic bomb. Initially set at seven minutes to midnight, the clock has been adjusted multiple times over the years, moving forward and backward in response to global events.
The furthest the minute hand has ever been from midnight was in 1991, when it was pushed back to 17 minutes amid nuclear disarmament efforts between then-U.S. President George H.W. Bush and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. However, in recent years, escalating tensions, geopolitical instability, climate crises, and emerging threats such as biological and cyber warfare have brought the clock dangerously close to the midnight mark.
For nearly eight decades, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, a nonprofit media organization composed of world leaders, scientists, and Nobel laureates, has made the annual decision on the clock’s setting. In recent years, concerns have expanded beyond nuclear conflict to include climate change, artificial intelligence, and global pandemics—all of which continue to shape the ever-growing risks facing humanity.
