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The Doomsday Clocks timeline through the years makes for unnerving reading
As the Doomsday Clock stays as close to midnight as ever before, its timeline through the years makes for unnerving reading.
By far the biggest and most important science story of the week is the 2024 update to the Doomsday Clock, an estimation of how close humanity is to destruction. Whilst this years update will dominate the headlines for good reason, looking back at how the ‘Doomsday Clock’ has changed through the years can help average people understand its scale and scope.
What is the Doomsday Clock and how does it work?
The Doomsday Clock is a symbol that represents how close we are to a man-made global catastrophe that could wipe out our species, such as through climate change or nuclear annihilation.
The clock was first inaugurated in 1947 and every year since, members of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists committee have updated how close the clock is to midnight which represents the hypothetical catastrophe itself.
The Doomsday Clock is a design that warns the public about how close we are to destroying our world with dangerous technologies of our own making. It is a metaphor, a reminder of the perils we must address if we are to survive on the planet.
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On January 23, 2024, the Doomsday Clock was updated to be 90 seconds to midnight.
The Doomsday Clock timeline through the years
The Doomsday Clock was originally set to seven minutes to midnight and since its inauguration in 1947, scientists have set it backward eight times and forward 17 times.
According to the clock, the farthest that humanity has been from destruction was set in 1991 at 17 minutes to midnight.
However, 2023s update saw the clock set forward to the closest to midnight in its history (so far) at just 90 seconds a reminder that the 2024 update was maintained at 90 seconds, indicating that the likelihood of catastrophe has not diminished over the past 12 months.
Here is how the Doomsday Clock has changed throughout the years, and what is considered to be one of the main reasons each time we moved closer to midnight:
- 1947 7 minutes to midnight
- 1949 3 minutes to midnight (-), USSR tests its first nuclear bomb
- 1953 2 minutes to midnight (-), US and USSR test the first thermonuclear weapons
- 1960 7 minutes to midnight (+)
- 1963 12 minutes to midnight (+)
- 1968 7 minutes to midnight, (-) France and China test their first nuclear weapons
- 1969 10 minutes to midnight (+)
- 1972 12 minutes to midnight (+)
- 1974 9 minutes to midnight, (-) India tests its first nuclear weapon and SALT II stalls
- 1980 7 minutes to midnight, (-) Soviet-Afghan war begins
- 1981 4 minutes to midnight, (-) Ronald Reagan becomes US President
- 1984 3 minutes to midnight, (-) US deploys cruise and ballistic missiles to Europe
- 1988 6 minutes to midnight (+)
- 1990 10 minutes to midnight (+)
- 1991 17 minutes to midnight (+)
- 1995 14 minutes to midnight, (-) Global military spending fails to fall even after the Soviet Union collapses
- 1998 9 minutes to midnight, (-) Pakistan and India test new nuclear weapons
- 2002 7 minutes to midnight, (-) US refuses arms control treaties post 9/11
- 2007 5 minutes to midnight, (-) North Korea tests a nuclear weapon
- 2010 6 minutes to midnight (+)
- 2012 5 minutes to midnight, (-) Lack of global action to address climate change
- 2015 3 minutes to midnight, (-) Climate change policies stall and nuclear weapons considered modernized
- 2017 2.5 minutes to midnight, (-) Donald Trump becomes US President
- 2018 2.5 minutes to midnight, (-) the US withdraws from the Paris agreement
- 2020 100 seconds to midnight, (-) Tensions rise between US, Russia, and Iran
- 2023 90 seconds to midnight, (-) Russia illegally invades Ukraine and shells nuclear power plants
Whilst poorly educated online commentators often point to the Doomsday Clock as merely a scare tactic used to advance political agenda, the survival of the human species remains (as it should be) uninvolved with partisan politics.
As the official platform states, The Bulletin has moved the Clock hand away from midnight almost as often as it has moved it toward midnight, and as often during Republican administrations in the United States as during Democratic ones.
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As of 2024, the Doomsday Clock has now been set for 90 seconds to midnight.
