The globally recognised symbolic clock has been maintained by The Bulletin Of The Atomic Scientists, since just after World War 2 in 1947. The clock is used as a visual representation of the world’s proximity to global disaster based on political, natural and also technological threats such as nuclear war/disasters, climate change and technological threats.
The last adjustment was around 2 years ago when the clock was changed to 3 minutes to midnight, the worst position since the nuclear threat of the cold war between the U.S. and Russia.
Rachel Bronson, the chief of the Bulletin Of The Atomic Scientists has continually called for calming of tensions between the world superpowers, to avoid the possibility of war in the coming months.
“Disturbing comments about the use and proliferation of nuclear weapons made by Donald Trump, as well as the expressed disbelief in the overwhelming scientific consensus on climate change by both Trump and several of his cabinet appointees, affected the Board’s decision, as did the emergence of strident nationalism worldwide,” the BPA wrote.
Other world threats are also taken into consideration of the doomsday clock adjustment, such as terrorism and cyber attacks which have become a common threat in recent times.
