Mary Pintea – News Editor

mvp5879@psu.edu 

The Doomsday Clock is not a literal clock, but it does possess just as much value: it gauges how close humanity is to destroying the planet. 

When the clock strikes midnight, Earth will have become close to unlivable. 

Created in 1947, The Doomsday Clock is an indicator as to how close the earth is to being uninhabitable by means of climate, not necessarily war. While it does not aim to measure the end of the world accurately, it does spark conversation about the current state of climate change and politics. 

The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists was organized by the group of atomic scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project, the code name for the development of the first atomic bomb circa World War II. The organization was conceived to monitor and measure nuclear threats, but decided to expand their vigilance to climate change in 2007. 

The decision to move the clock ten seconds forward this year is largely due to the Invasion of Ukraine, which continues to escalate. Unfortunately, with this escalation comes the increased threat of an all-out nuclear war that ultimately ends humanity. Coupled with global warming, extreme biological threats like COVID-19, and the dissolution of institutions that lobby on behalf of climate change, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists declared that this is the closest we have been to the end of the world. 

Rest assured, we do have the ability to turn back the clock, which has been done in years prior. “We are living in a time of unprecedented danger, and the Doomsday Clock time reflects that reality,” Rachel Bronson, president and CEO of the Bulletin, stated in a press release. “It’s a decision our experts do not take lightly. The US government, its NATO allies and Ukraine have a multitude of channels for dialogue; we urge leaders to explore all of them to their fullest ability to turn back the Clock.”

The clock is certainly doing its job, sparking politicians globally to ignite change. In 2021, former Prime Minister Boris Johnson discussed the clock when addressing climate change at the COP26 climate talks in Glasgow, UK. 

That leaves one question: what can the average person do to turn back the clock when we feel so powerless? 

“We at the Bulletin believe that because humans created these threats, we can reduce them,” Bronson said. “But doing so is not easy, nor has it ever been. And it requires serious work and global engagement at all levels of society.”

Everyone should be doing what they can, and eating seasonally and locally, reducing wastes, and recycling properly are all ways to mitigate the climate crisis.