If the last couple of years have felt like a living nightmare filled with new, unimaginable horrors thrust upon you every day, we’ve got some good news: That terror may soon be over. In fact, the world as we know it may soon be over—the Doomsday Clock has moved its position to two minutes before midnight.
The Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, who have been in charge of the symbolic end-of-the-world clock since its inception in 1945, advanced it all the way to two minutes before midnight this week from the previous standing at three minutes to midnight it has held since 2015.
The clock’s position has been updated every two years since its creation in ’45, at which point it kicked off the ritual with a standing at seven minutes to midnight. The furthest from doomsday the clock ever made it was 14 minutes to midnight, recorded in 1995. The last time we hit the record low of two minutes to midnight was 1953, in the heatt of the Cold War’s Nuclear Arms Race.
Obviously there is no literal countdown to the apocalypse, but the Doomsday Clock has been used to warn mankind about how perilously close we are to global nuclear war, and the growing tensions and instability around North Korea are not exactly ideal if you hope to avoid total annihilation. The clock’s present position also reflects the threat to world safety posed by climate change, as well as the “breakdown in the international order that has been dangerously exacerbated by recent US actions,” which has led to less global cooperation and stability.
Which means that if the world does end soon, it could be for the exact reason many of us have always feared: Twitter.
Do you think the clock should be this close, or are things not as bad as that? Tell us why in the comments below, and just in case, do it quickly.
Featured Image: Warner Bros.
A few tips on surviving the apocalypse…
- Here’s the best place to stab a zombie
- And here’s the best way to hunt a werewolf
- And while we’re on the subject, could a portal gun end all life on Earth?
