A dramatic doomsday warning to the world

​The Doomsday Clock is a universally recognized indicator of the world’s vulnerability to catastrophe from nuclear weapons, climate change and other emerging global threats.

Although it may be easier to think “out of sight, out of mind,” the Bulletin has been alerting us since 1947 that nuclear weapons remain a grave threat to the survival of humanity. The original setting was seven minutes to midnight, and now we’ve allowed our world to drift to a setting of three minutes to midnight, not seen since 1984 during one of the most dangerous periods of the Cold War.

There are still 16,300 nuclear weapons in the world, many on high alert, able to be launched in less than 15 minutes.

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