At the dawn of the nuclear age, scientists created the Doomsday Clock as a symbolic representation of how close humanity is to destroying the world. According to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, on Tuesday the clock was set at 85 seconds to midnight, the closest the timepiece has ever been to midnight since the clock was established in 1947.
Midnight represents the moment at which people will have made Earth uninhabitable. Last year, the Bulletin set the clock at 89 seconds to midnight, which was at that point the closest the world had ever been to that hour. In 2023 and 2024, the time was set at 90 seconds to midnight.
The scientists made the 2025 change due to insufficient progress in combatting or regulating global challenges including nuclear risk, the climate crisis, biological threats, and advances in disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence. The spread of misinformation, disinformation and conspiracy theories was also cited as an existential threat to humanity.
“Humanity has not made sufficient progress on the existential risks that endanger us all,” said Bulletin President and CEO Alexandra Bell. “The Doomsday Clock is a tool for communicating how close we are to destroying the world with technologies of our own making. Every second counts and we are running out of time.”
“It is a hard truth, but this is our reality,” Bell said. The risks from nuclear weapons, climate change and disruptive technologies are all growing, according to the Bulletin scientists.
Dr. Daniel Holz, chair of the Bulletin’s science and security board, said in a news briefing Tuesday that countries needed to change course toward international cooperation and action on the most critical existential risks. Rather than heed this warning, major countries became more aggressive, adversarial and nationalistic.
Conflicts intensified in 2025 with multiple military operations involving nuclear-armed states. The last remaining treaty governing nuclear weapons stockpiles between the US and Russia will soon expire on February 4. For the first time in over half a century, there will be nothing preventing a runaway nuclear arms race.
Grave dangers persist in the life sciences, particularly in emerging areas such as the development of synthetic mirror life, despite repeated warnings from scientists worldwide. The international community has no coordinated plan, and the world remains unprepared for potentially devastating biological threats.
The rapid growth and use of AI tools, coupled with the lack of regulation, supercharges mis- and disinformation and greatly impacts efforts to address these threats and exacerbates every other impending disaster.
What is the Doomsday Clock?
A group of scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project established the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists as a nonprofit in 1945. The organization’s original purpose was to measure nuclear threats, and in 2007 the climate crisis was also included in its calculations.
Over the past 79 years, Bulletin scientists have changed the clock’s time annually according to how close they believe the human race is to total annihilation. The time is set by experts on the science and security board in consultation with the board of sponsors, formed by Albert Einstein in December 1948, with J. Robert Oppenheimer as its first chair.
Is the Doomsday Clock real?
The clock is not designed to definitively measure existential threats but rather to spark conversations about scientific topics and crises the planet is facing. Some experts have questioned its usefulness.
“It’s an imperfect metaphor,” said Dr. Michael Mann, Presidential Distinguished Professor at the University of Pennsylvania. He said it remains an important rhetorical device that reminds us of the tenuousness of our current existence on this planet.
Eryn MacDonald of the Union of Concerned Scientists said while talking about seconds to midnight no longer reflects reality, the Bulletin has made thoughtful decisions each year to get people’s attention about existential threats and required action.
What happens when the clock hits midnight?
The Doomsday Clock has never reached midnight. Former Bulletin president and CEO Rachel Bronson said midnight would mean some sort of nuclear exchange or catastrophic climate change that wiped out humanity.
What can we do to turn back time?
The hand moved farthest from midnight in 1991 when the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty was signed. Because humans created these threats, they can reduce them, according to the Bulletin.
Discussing important issues, combating misinformation, and public engagement can urge leaders to act. Without facts there is no truth, without truth there is no trust, and without these there is no shared reality.
Other actions include walking versus driving, how often you heat your home, eating seasonally and locally, reducing food waste, conserving water, reducing plastic use and recycling properly to help mitigate the climate crisis.
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