Doomsday Clock Moves 30 Seconds Closer To Midnight

WASHINGTON, DC – It's almost midnight and that's not a good thing. The Doomsday Clock has been moved 30 seconds ahead.

The clock, established by the Chicago-based Bulletin of Atomic Scientists to measure the state of the world and dangers facing it, now says the world is two minutes to midnight, or doomsday.

The clock, which is symbolic, had been set to 2:30 until midnight before the move.

"To call the world nuclear situation dire is to understate the danger — and its immediacy," two of the organization's officials – Lawrence Krauss and Robert Rosner – wrote in an op-ed piece in The Washington Post. "We hope this resetting of the clock will be interpreted exactly as it is meant: an urgent warning of global danger.

"The time for world leaders to address looming nuclear danger and the continuing march of climate change is long past."

The scientists cite North Korea, climate change, nuclear weapons and the fact that "US-Russia relations now feature more conflict than cooperation" for their decision to move the clock ahead.

The clock, which was created in 1947, is as close to midnight now as it has ever been.

It sat at two minutes until midnight from 1953 until 1960. The farthest it has been from midnight was 17 minutes in 1991 after the United States and Soviet Union signed a nuclear arms reduction treaty and the Soviet Union dissolved.

Photo of the clock announcement in 2017 via Carolyn Kaster/AP Photo