Name: What Happens When the Doomsday Clock Hits Midnight?
Uploaded: 2026-02-07T17:00:33.000Z
Duration: 3 min 42 s
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Since 2020, the Doomsday Clock has been set to 100 seconds to midnight, which is the closest it's ever been to midnight in its 75 years of existence.

As the scientist who set the clock put it, we are at doom's doorstep.

The Doomsday Clock is a metaphor to remind humans of how close we are to destroying our planet through the technology we develop.

With midnight representing the apocalypse, it's a symbol to remind us to address these dangers so that we can survive on our planet.

It was created by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, an organization founded by scientists at the University of Chicago who worked on the Manhattan Project.

When the Doomsday clock debuted in 1947, its creator, artist Martle Langsdorff, set it to seven minutes to midnight.

She was married to a physicist who worked on the Manhattan Project.

When she heard him and other scientists talk about the consequences of development, this dangerous technology, she created the clock to show that we didn't have much time left to get atomic weapons under control.

Since then, it's set by scientists and experts in the field of nuclear technology and as of 2007, climate science.

When things like political tensions raise the threat of nuclear war, and

as the dangers of climate change rise, the clock is set closer and closer to midnight.

For instance, like when a country with massive stockpiles of warheads and nuclear materials that is currently developing both hypersonic and anti satell missiles and has an active biological weapons program invades a neighboring country for no good reason.

The clock hand was most recently moved in 2020 from 2 minutes to midnight to 100 seconds to midnight.

At this time, national leaders were ending or undermining major arms treaties and negotiations to control nuclear weapons.

Governments were doing little to curb carbon dioxide emissions and climate change.

And these dangers were made all the worse by cyber disinformation campaigns that were used for political propaganda.

Two years later, and not much has changed.

in some instances, as you're seeing in the news, have already reached a boiling point.

Little is being done to address climate change, and

technologies are still being developed and used in dangerous and manipulative ways.

How could we ever recover from such a horrible and, frankly, terrifying reality?

While there are things that we can do to help push back clock, the Bulletin suggests educating ourselves on these technologies and the political issues they create, talking about them to spread awareness, protest and fight for change.

And contact your political leaders to tell them that we need to see these changes happen.

Use your voice if you are safely able to do so, and

if you can vote the people out that don't have the planet's best interest in mind.

From where we're standing right now, the future may be looking a little bleak, but

just by paying attention and speaking out against dangerous decisions, we could get ourselves some more time on that clock.

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If you want to understand the dangers of these atomic weapons, you can check out some of the videos we made on those topics.

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