The End May Be Nearer: Doomsday Clock Moves Within 100 Seconds Of Midnight

The Doomsday Clock reads 100 seconds to midnight, a decision made by The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists that was announced Thursday. The clock is intended to represent the danger of global catastrophe. Eva Hambach/AFP via Getty Images

Two years after moving the metaphorical minute hand of its Doomsday Clock to within two minutes to midnight — a figurative two-minute warning for all humanity — the science and security board of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists revealed Thursday that it has moved that minute hand another 20 seconds closer to the midnight hour.

"It is 100 seconds to midnight," declared the Bulletin's president and CEO, Rachel Bronson, at a Washington, D.C., news conference as a black cloth was lifted to reveal the clock.

Never since the clock's 1947 Cold War debut has it come so close to the putative doomsday annihilation represented by the 12 a.m. hour

"The Doomsday Clock is a globally recognized indicator of the vulnerability of our existence," said former Irish president Mary Robinson at the annual clock-unveiling ceremony. "It's a striking metaphor for the precarious state of the world, but most frighteningly, it's a metaphor backed by rigorous scientific scrutiny."

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