WASHINGTON – The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists on Tuesday moved the hands of its symbolic Doomsday Clock to 89 seconds to midnight, signaling that humanity is the closest it has ever been to catastrophe.
According to the Bulletin, growing geopolitical tensions, the rise of artificial intelligence and extreme climate disasters together cemented their decision to move the clock forward. Out of the Clock’s history of nearly 80 years, the time reading had never been this close to midnight symbolic of “human extinction.”
“Our main message here is we’re already the closest we’ve ever been to midnight, and now the clock is moving forward,” said Daniel Holz, who chairs the committee that moved the clock’s hands. “When you’re at this precipice, the one thing you don’t want to do is take a step forward.”
Every year since the Doomsday Clock was introduced in 1947, the clock has ticked either forward or backward to represent movement closer or farther from self-annihilation.
The Bulletin criticized President Donald Trump for withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement and the World Health Organization. Still, the Bulletin said they did not base their decision on Trump’s early actions in office.
In 2017, not long after Trump swore his first oath of office, the Bulletin moved the clock forward by 30 seconds, but also said it was not due to Trump’s inauguration.
“Something we’ve learned from, you know, the previous administration is that there’s often a lot of rhetoric and a lot of dramatic action, but we have to wait to see how those play out,” Holz said in an interview with Medill News Service.
This year’s clock position marked the first time the Clock moved by only one second, with the smallest shift previously being by 10 seconds when the clock moved to 90 seconds before midnight in 2023.
The experts said they were influenced by the deteriorating state of nuclear disarmament. In 2023, Russia suspended its participation in the 2010 New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, a treaty that limits Russia and the United States’ deployed strategic nuclear warheads at a set amount. Months later, Russia withdrew from the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty as China continued to expand its nuclear arsenal.
“The U.S. has abdicated its role as a voice of caution. It seems inclined to expand its nuclear arsenal and adopt a posture that reinforces the belief that ‘limited’ use of nuclear weapons can be managed. Such misplaced confidence could have us stumble into a nuclear war,” said Manpreet Sethi, a board member of the Science and Security Board.
Holz emphasized an urgency for nuclear disarmament efforts at all levels, including grassroots efforts and education.
“There’s this assumption the Cold War is in the past and everything is fine now. And that’s incorrect,” said Holz to Medill News Service.
The climate crisis was another major factor. Given rising global temperatures and extreme weather events, especially wildfires and floods, the Board called for urgent action to minimize fossil fuel emissions and invest in sustainability.
“Investments to adapt to climate change and cut fossil fuel emissions were way below what is needed to avoid the worst impacts,” said Robert Socolow, Science and Security Board Member.
The 2025 Doomsday Clock announcement came a week after Trump announced a $500 billion investment in AI infrastructure. A recent issue note from the United Nations Environment Programme highlighted that AI requires enormous energy use, which fuels climate change.
“It’s not at all obvious the consequence of those particular investments,” Socolow told Medill News Service. “What President Trump is doing that is particularly worse is pretending the problem isn’t there.”
Though the COVID-19 pandemic had faded from public focus, the Bulletin warned that the interconnectedness of existential risks could make the world more vulnerable to even deadlier outbreaks. Avian influenza is currently spreading through livestock in numerous states, raising concerns about human transmission in the U.S. Suzet McKinney, a member of the Science and Security Board, believes Trump’s recent move to freeze federal funding could worsen the situation.
“The danger that we see in the freezing of that funding at this point is that some public health programs could stop altogether, and other public health programs can be significantly impacted negatively because of the ability to not have the sustained funding that they need,” she said.
The Bulletin’s Science and Security Board (SASB) consulted with its Board of Sponsors, which includes nine Nobel laureates, before unveiling the new time at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington, D.C.
Former Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Chair of The Elders, emphasized the need for collaborative leadership to reverse the clock.
“There is a big chance that this time next year, we will be moving the hands of the clock back, not forward,” he said. “But this will only happen if leaders engage in good faith dialogue.”
Santos reminded the public that the one-second move, despite its bleak reality, offers opportunities to work toward turning back the clock and addressing the risks that moved its hands forward.
“There is still time to make the right choices to turn back the hands of the Doomsday Clock. In Colombia, we say ‘cada segundo cuenta.’ Every second counts. Let us use each one wisely.”