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TRANSCRIPT
For the third time in the past four years, atomic scientists have moved the Doomsday Clock closer to midnight.
A tool for communicating how close humans are to global disaster, the clock now sits at 85 seconds to midnight, the closest it's ever been to the theoretical point of world annihilation.
President of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists Alexandra Bell says the urgency of the warning can't be overstated.
"The risks we face from nuclear weapons, climate change, and disruptive technologies are all growing. Every second counts, and we are running out of time. It is a hard truth, but this is our reality."
The Bulletin was founded in 1945 by scientists including Albert Einstein and J. Robert Oppenheimer.
The Chicago-based nonprofit created the clock in 1947 following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, to act as a reminder about how close humankind was to destroying its own world.
Nearly 80 years on, Chair of the Bulletin's Science and Security Board Daniel Holz says with the clock now four seconds closer than it was last year, the planet is edging toward annihilation at a dangerous pace.
"Last year, we warned that the world was perilously close to catastrophe and that countries needed to change course towards international cooperation and action on the most critical existential risks. Unfortunately, the opposite has happened. Rather than heed this warning, major countries became even more aggressive, adversarial and nationalistic."
Scientists at the Bulletin cite aggressive behaviour by nuclear powers, fraying nuclear arms control, global conflicts and unregulated Artificial Intelligence as some of the current risks driving toward global disaster.
In terms of nuclear risks, the Bulletin warns in the last year alone, longstanding diplomatic frameworks have been brought under duress, the threat of explosive nuclear testing has been heightened, and proliferation concerns have grown.
The scientists point to Russia's continued war in Ukraine, the US and Israeli bombing of Iran and border clashes between India and Pakistan as examples of recent conflicts that have taken place under the shadow of nuclear weapons.
Mr Holz says with the only existing nuclear arms pact between Russia and the US about to expire, the risk of escalation is especially high.
"The last remaining treaty governing nuclear weapons stockpiles between the US and Russia expires next week. For the first time in over half a century, there will be nothing preventing a runaway nuclear arms race."
Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed in September that the two countries agree to the limits set under the New START treaty for another year, capping each side's number of deployed nuclear warheads at 1,550.
US President Donald Trump has not formally responded.
In October, he ordered the US military to restart the process for testing nuclear weapons after a halt of more than three decades.
Scientists at the Bulletin warn President Trump's approach to governance more broadly is also part of a dangerous nationalistic and autocratic global trend that's making the world increasingly dangerous.
"These autocratic trends impede international cooperation, reduce accountability, and serve as a threat multiplier, making it even less likely that the world will address the existential threats at its doorstep. We note with alarm the recent tragedies in Minnesota and the erosion of the constitutional rights of American citizens. History has shown that when governments become unaccountable to their own citizens, conflict and misery follow."
The scientists also note an array of worsening challenges posed by climate change.
Atmospheric carbon dioxide —the greenhouse gas most responsible for human-caused climate change—reached a new high in 2024, rising to 1.5 per cent above pre-industrial levels.
A statement from scientists at the Bulletin says international responses to the climate emergency went from "wholly insufficient" to "profoundly destructive" in 2025.
Guest speaker at the Doomsday Clock announcement and 2021 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Maria Ressa says the unregulated use and development of AI is also cause for significant concern.
"We are living through an information Armageddon. That's brought about by the technology that rules our lives, from social media to generative AI. None of that tech is anchored in facts. Your chatbot is nothing but a probabilistic machine. Even as the tech moves from the attention economy to now targeting intimacy, human beings, we have been commodified by a predatory and extractive industry."
The Bulletin's message is clear and urgent: if these risks aren't managed, the world will continue careening toward global disaster.
Bulletin President Alexandra Bell says immediate action can and must be taken to slow the clock's ticking.
"I think the thing to remember is these are human-caused existential threats. We created these problems, and thus we have the ability to fix them, and it can't be done all at once. There's no single elegant solution for any of the problems that we're facing. But these problems are solvable."
