One hundred seconds to the end of the world

If the history of mankind were to last a mere 24 hours, the clock would, at this moment, mark only one hundred seconds to "midnight", understood as the catastrophic destruction of the human species. This is the Doomsday Clock, a symbolic marker created in 1947 by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists to represent the analogy of our extinction.

Today the Bulletin has just published an update of the countdown to the world's end: only one hundred seconds. This is the time that we are closest to extinction: the minute hand on the clock was brought forward in January 2018 to two minutes to midnight, the closest it has ever been to the end of humanity. In 1953, in the context of the Cold War, the clock counted down to two minutes and thirty seconds for our end.

The decision to set the countdown to our extinction at just 100 seconds is historic, and Bulletin members have sent a message to the leaders of the planet through a statement, arguing the reasons why we are on the brink of destruction.

Nuclear war and climate change are the main threats

 "Science and technology can bring enormous benefits, but without constant vigilance, they also carry enormous risks," they argue. Experts are referring to the risks posed by certain technologies, such as nuclear weapons, but also by "the growing threat of information warfare and other disruptive technologies. Artificial intelligence, space weapons or genetic engineering presage "dangerous and multi-faceted global instability".

On the other hand, experts argue that humanity and its leaders have not exercised a "strong enough response to the growing climate threat. Despite continued warnings from the scientific community, greenhouse gas emissions increased again last year, bringing annual emissions and atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases to record levels.

As a result, "the lives of people around the world have suffered tragic consequences," they explain.

The hour of humanity: 23:58:30

This is not the first time the Clock of Revelation has changed; this is the twenty-sixth time it has happened. Successive changes have moved the clock forward or backwards in relation to events potentially dangerous to mankind, and it has never moved forward as much as it does now.

When the countdown to midnight began in 1947, the clock struck 23:50. Now, the time for humanity is 23:58:30.

Why move the Clock of Revelation forward to 2020 and not before?

Experts believe that the year 2020 makes an important mark on humanity's calendar because it is time to review certain events that mark our progress as a civilization or, as they argue, "the lack of progress" toward a safer and more sustainable planet.

For example, 2020 marks the 50th anniversary of the first celebration of Earth Day in 1970; the 50th anniversary of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons; and the 75th anniversary of the testing and then use of nuclear weapons in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

For these scientists, humanity has not lived up to these commitments. And the consequences are on the verge of wiping out our species.