CHICAGO: The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists on Thursday moved the hands of the symbolic "Doomsday Clock" ahead to two minutes to midnight, the closest since the 1950s, amid increasing worries over nuclear weapons and climate change. Last year, the scientists took the unprecedented step of setting the clock half a minute closer—from three minutes to two minutes, thirty seconds—citing the election of Donald Trump, the global rise of nationalism, and the world’s sluggish response to climate change as the main reasons. “Because of the extraordinary danger of the current moment, the Science and Security Board today moves the minute hand of the Doomsday Clock 30 seconds closer to catastrophe," said Rachel Bronson, president of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. It’s only been there once before—in 1953 when the US had decided to pursue the hydrogen bomb and was testing nuclear weapons in the Pacific Ocean. According to the Washington Post, in moving the clock 30 seconds closer to the hour of the apocalypse, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists cited “the failure of President Trump and other world leaders to deal with looming threats of nuclear war and climate change.”

The U.S. and Russia are discussing expanding their nuclear arsenal. This marks the first year since the height of the Cold War that the clock has been just two minutes away from “midnight.”

Its farthest distance from midnight was 17 minutes away in 1991 as the Soviet Union broke apart.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moves the Doomsday Clock thirty seconds forward, to two minutes before midnight, the closest setting since 1953. The journal cites the closer approach to the point of hypothetical global catastrophe to the failure of world leaders to deal with looming threats of nuclear war (particularly, tensions involving the North Korean nuclear program) and climate change.