Doomsday Clock 2024: Will It Creep Closer To Midnight? How To Tune Into the Announcement?

(Photo : Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images) WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 24: The 2023 Doomsday Clock is displayed before of a live-streamed event with members of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists on January 24, 2023 in Washington, DC. This year the Doomsday Clock is set at ninety seconds to Midnight

The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists will be having the annual Doomsday Clock announcement for 2024.

What Is Doomsday Clock?

Doomsday Clock is a hypothetical timepiece that shows how close the world and humanity is to midnight, which figuratively symbolizes the apocalyptic self-destruction of humankind. It was created by scientists who were part of the Manhattan Project and who first focused mainly on nuclear threats. However, the clock's coverage has now expanded to include other threats, such as pandemic illness, political tensions, climate change, and technological trajectories.

There are years where the clock goes forward, backward, or stays where it is. If the clock moves forward, this means that humanity could be getting closer to destruction. If it moves backward, it implies that global catastrophe risks were reduced in the last 12 months. If it stays where it is, this means that the global situation did not really change.

The clock was first set in 1947, when it was 7 minutes away from midnight. The farthest the clock has been was 17 minutes to midnight, following the Cold War's end.

At present, the Doomsday Clock is at its closest point to midnight, having just 90 seconds before midnight. Last year, several existential threats affected the decision to forward the clock from 100 seconds to 90 seconds to midnight.

The movement of the clock is decided by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (BAS), which is a non-profit organization consisting of policy experts and scientists. Last year, the ongoing war in Ukraine, disruptive technologies, and climate change all played a vital role in the Doomsday Clock's timing.

Rachel Bronson, the president and CEO of BAS, explains that conflict hotspots all over the world have the threat of nuclear escalation. Moreover, climate change is already leading to destruction and death, while disruptive technologies and biological research are advancing faster compared to their safeguards.

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Doomsday Clock 2024 Announcement

This clock is updated every January. The question now is whether the Doomsday clock will creep forward once more in 2024. The Doomsday Clock 2024 announcement will be held in January 23. It will be live-streamed via YouTube at 10:00 a.m. EST. The announcement will feature Bill Nye, a science educator, and several other experts.

After its unveiling, the model clock can be spotted at the Bulletin offices in the Keller Center.

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Check out more news and information on Doomsday Countdown in Science Times.