In January 2020, it was moved forward to 100 seconds (1 minute, 40 seconds) before midnight. The clock's setting was left unchanged in 2021 and 2022. In January 2023, it was moved forward to 90 seconds (1 minute, 30 seconds) before midnight.
The Doomsday Clock's time is set by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists' Science and Security Board with the support of the Bulletin's Board of Sponsors, which includes 10 Nobel Laureates. Previously, the Doomsday Clock had been set at 100 seconds to midnight since 2020.
The clock created a stir when it was set to 100 seconds to midnight in 2020, the first time the famous clock had gone down to seconds rather than minutes. At the time, the Bulletin's scientists said we were "at doom's doorstep." It remained at 100 seconds to midnight in 2021 and 2022.
During the COVID lockdowns in 2020, the world felt so dystopian, that the Doomsday Clock was set to 100 seconds to midnight—the closest to a global apocalypse since the metaphoric clock came into existence more than seven decades ago. The closest, that is, until now.
The clock began at seven minutes to midnight in 1947 and wasn't moved until 1949 to three minutes when the Soviet Union tested its first atomic bomb. In 1991, the clock had its furthest time from catastrophe when it was set to 17 minutes to midnight as the Cold War cooled down.
The Bulletin has reset the minute hand on the Doomsday Clock 25 times since its debut in 1947, most recently in 2023 when we moved it from 100 seconds to midnight to 90 seconds to midnight.
The "100 seconds to midnight" setting remained unchanged in 2021 and 2022. On January 24, 2023, the Clock was moved to 90 seconds (1 minute, 30 seconds) before midnight, meaning that the Clock's current setting is the closest it has ever been to midnight since its inception in 1947.
Midnight marks the theoretical point of annihilation. Apocalyptic threats could arise from political tensions, weapons, technology, climate change or pandemic illness. The hands of the clock are moved closer to or further away from midnight based on the scientists' reading of existential threats at a particular time.
So she sketched a clock to suggest that we didn't have much time left to get atomic weapons under control. Graphic designer Michael Bierut reimagined the iconic image in 2007. Martyl set the original Clock at seven minutes to midnight because, she said, “it looked good to my eye.”
Over the past 76 years, the hands of the clock have moved both backward and forward, according to whether steps were taken to address potentially civilization-ending threats, including climate change and nuclear war. "This is the closest the Doomsday Clock has ever been to midnight," said University of Chicago Prof.
But it may be helpful to remember, Wellerstein adds, that the Doomsday Clock is not a scientific instrument or even an institution. It's a metaphor and a communication tool. One reasonable measure of success might simply be whether people talk about it when the time changes, and the issues behind that change.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists set its Doomsday Clock at 90 seconds to midnight, the closest to midnight the clock has been since it was established in 1947 to illustrate global existential threats at the dawn of the nuclear weapons age.
The clock hands are set by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, a group formed by Manhattan Project scientists at the University of Chicago who helped build the atomic bomb but protested using it against people. The time of the clock is currently 90 seconds to midnight.
The Doomsday Clock's history
There have been more reassuring years, though. In 1995 the clock was at 14 minutes to midnight, the safest reading in its history. And there were "positive strides" in some years, such as the Paris climate agreement.
1984: Three minutes from midnight
In 1984, the Bulletin warned that because of stalled communication between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, the world was a mere 180 seconds away from the proverbial end of days.
2 minutes to midnight. 1953. The Bulletin moved the clock the closest to midnight it had ever been—and the closest it would ever be in the 20th Century—after the U.S. and the Soviet Union detonated their first thermonuclear weapons. 2.5 minutes to midnight.
The Doomsday Clock is the most graphic depiction of human-made threats, and the act of moving the clock forward communicates a clear and urgent need for vigilance. For 2021 and 2022, the clock's hands were set at 100 seconds to midnight.
What is the “Doomsday Clock?” The “Doomsday Clock,” created in 1947, is an “international symbol of the world's vulnerability to catastrophe” as well as a countdown to when the “man-made threats to human existence” like nuclear weapons, the fossil fuel industry and technology, are likely to tip us over the edge.
In 2002, scientists moved up the Doomsday Clock from nine to seven minutes to midnight, citing “too little progress on global nuclear disarmament” and other threats.
The "Doomsday Clock," created by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists to illustrate how close humanity has come to the end of the world, moved its "time" in 2023 to 90 seconds to midnight, 10 seconds closer than it has been for the past three years. Midnight on this clock marks the theoretical point of annihilation.
At this point, you're probably wondering what would actually happen if the clock struck midnight. Though there's no need to take it literally, Bronson says there would be some sort of nuclear exchange or catastrophic climate change that would wipe out humanity.
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language states "By convention, 12 AM denotes midnight and 12 PM denotes noon. Because of the potential for confusion, it is advisable to use 12 noon and 12 midnight."
It is 90 seconds to midnight.
Before Reading
Doomsday Clock builds on two specific narratives. The first is the original Watchmen story and the second is the main narrative running through the DC Rebirth era.
The truth is, there is actually a story that follows up on the events of Doomsday Clock. It's called Dark Nights: Death Metal, and it involves the villainous Batman Who Laughs using the powers of Doctor Manhattan to become a godlike figure.