Things Need to Know about Doomsday Clock, Time of Destruction

VIVA – Have you ever known about the Doomsday clock? the doomsday clock is a symbolic clock used by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists to indicate how close humanity is to global catastrophe. The nearer the clock is to midnight, the closer we are to destruction.

The origins of the Doomsday Clock date to 1947, when a group of atomic researchers who had been involved with developing nuclear weapons for the United States Manhattan Project began publishing a magazine called Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

Two years after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, this community of nuclear experts was troubled by the implications of nuclear warfare. As a result, the Doomsday Clock first emerged as a graphic concept on the cover of the Bulletin’s June 1947 edition.

Well, here are the interesting things about the Doomsday clock that people need to know.

1. Time of Destruction

The Doomsday Clock is actually a symbol to represent how close humans are to the destruction of the world due to dangerous man-made technology.

Mentioned in the official website of the University of Chicago Office of Communications, the Doomsday Clock shows the metaphor of minutes to midnight as how long human civilization can last. The clock is organized annually by The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientist and aims to convert the public.

The Doomsday Clock was created in 1947, with its placement based on the threats that could arise from nuclear weapons. The Bulletin's scientists considered nuclear weapons to be humanity's greatest danger.

In 2007, scientists began to include the dangers of climate change in the setting of the Doomsday Clock. The farthest the clock was set was 17 minutes to midnight in 1991, which was after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the planning of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.

Until now, the closest clockwork setting to 'doomsday' was two minutes before midnight. The setting was made in 1953 when the United States and the Soviet Union both conducted thermonuclear weapons tests and in 2018 due to a lack of action on climate change as well as the actions of nuclear makers.

The Doomsday Clock is located at the offices of The Bulletin, 1307 E 60th St, in the lobby of the Keller Center, home to the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago.

Members of The Bulletin have continually emphasized that the clock is not meant to scare people, but rather to trigger action. Originally, the Doomsday Clock's countdown referred to nuclear weapons, but now there is another threat in the form of climate change.

As quoted from the BBC Future report, the Doomsday Clock will show the level of risk that humanity is currently facing. In 2003, cosmologist and astronomer Martin Rees argued that the odds were no more than 50:50 that the current civilization on Earth, would survive until the end of this century.

However, SJ Beard in the same report distinguished that the movement of the Doomsday Clock is somewhat different. Its purpose is not to tell how much risk humanity faces, but how well humans respond to that risk.