Guided by concerns about nuclear proliferation, global warming and cybersecurity, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has kept the minute hand of its 72-year-old Doomsday Clock at 2 minutes until midnight, the closest humanity has been to Armageddon since 1953, when the U.S. and the Soviet Union first detonated hydrogen bombs.
“A new abnormal: It is still two minutes to midnight,” reads the 2019 release. “Humanity now faces two simultaneous existential threats, either of which would be cause for extreme concern and immediate attention. These major threats — nuclear weapons and climate change — were exacerbated this past year by the increased use of information warfare to undermine democracy around the world, amplifying risk from these and other threats and putting the future of civilization in extraordinary danger.