The Doomsday Clock has moved closer to midnight as leading experts warn that humanity is closer than ever to global catastrophe.
On Tuesday (27 January), the symbolic time piece moved forward to 85 seconds, four seconds ahead of last year’s record of 89 seconds.
The clock was set up in 1947 by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists to track the tensions of the Cold War. The organisation’s opinion of how close the world is to midnight, or global catastrophe, is represented by minutes or seconds.
The organisation said that “national leaders – particularly those in the United States, Russia, and China – must take the lead in finding a path away from the brink” and that “citizens must insist they do so.”
