Humanity is closer to destruction than ever. Will the Doomsday Clock move?

On January 24, 2023, at 10 a.m. EST, the Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists will make the annual Doomsday Clock announcement for 2023, revealing the likelihood of human self-destruction based on an analysis from the smartest people in the world.

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists will host a live virtual news conference to announce whether the time on the iconic Doomsday Clock will change. 

In January 2020 the Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moved the Doomsday Clock from two minutes to midnight to 100 seconds to midnight, closer to global catastrophe than ever even before the invasion of Ukraine by Russia.

“Physical scientists have now found means which, if they are developed, can wipe life off the surface of this planet,” said John Foster Dulles to the United Nations in 1953, but humanity has never been closer to actually doing that than we are today.

The 2023 Doomsday Clock announcement will feature these speakers:

Mary Robinson, the first woman president of Ireland, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, advocate for gender equality, women’s participation in peace-building, human dignity and climate justice, and Chair, The Elders;

Elbegdorj Tsakhia, former president and prime minister of Mongolia, an international campaigner on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation, climate change and democracy, and member, The Elders;

Rachel Bronson, Ph.D., president and CEO, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists;

Sivan Kartha, Ph.D., senior scientist, Stockholm Environmental Institute, lead author for the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report, and member, Science and Security Board (SASB), Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists;

Suzet McKinney, DrPH, Principal and Director of Life Sciences, Sterling Bay, and member, Science and Security Board (SASB), Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists; and

Steve Fetter, Ph.D., dean of the graduate school and professor of public policy, University of Maryland, fellow, American Physical Society, member, National Academy of Sciences Committee on International Security and Arms Control, and member, Science and Security Board (SASB), Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

Founded in 1945 by Albert Einstein and the University of Chicago scientists who helped develop the first atomic weapons in the Manhattan Project, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists created the Doomsday Clock two years later, using the imagery of apocalypse (midnight) and the contemporary idiom of nuclear explosion (countdown to zero) to convey threats to humanity and the planet.

The Doomsday Clock is set every year by the Bulletin’s Science and Security Board in consultation with its Board of Sponsors, which includes 11 Nobel laureates.

The Doomsday Clock has become a universally recognized indicator of the world’s vulnerability to catastrophe from nuclear weapons, climate change, and disruptive technologies in other domains.