Essay by Eric Worrall
But if Congress overrides President Trump on renewable energy the world can win a reprieve.
It is now 85 seconds to midnight
2026 Doomsday Clock Statement
Science and Security Board
Bulletin of the Atomic ScientistsEditor, John Mecklin
January 27, 2026
Founded in 1945 by Albert Einstein, J. Robert Oppenheimer, and University of Chicago scientists who helped develop the first atomic weapons in the Manhattan Project, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists created the Doomsday Clock two years later, using the imagery of apocalypse (midnight) and the contemporary idiom of nuclear explosion (countdown to zero) to convey threats to humanity and the planet. The Doomsday Clock is set every year by the Bulletin’s Science and Security Board in consultation with its Board of Sponsors, which includes eight Nobel laureates. The Clock has become a universally recognized indicator of the world’s vulnerability to global catastrophe caused by man-made technologies.
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It is now 85 seconds to midnight
A year ago, we warned that the world was perilously close to global disaster and that any delay in reversing course increased the probability of catastrophe. Rather than heed this warning, Russia, China, the United States, and other major countries have instead become increasingly aggressive, adversarial, and nationalistic. Hard-won global understandings are collapsing, accelerating a winner-takes-all great power competition and undermining the international cooperation critical to reducing the risks of nuclear war, climate change, the misuse of biotechnology, the potential threat of artificial intelligence, and other apocalyptic dangers. Far too many leaders have grown complacent and indifferent, in many cases adopting rhetoric and policies that accelerate rather than mitigate these existential risks. Because of this failure of leadership, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Science and Security Board today sets the Doomsday Clock at 85 seconds to midnight, the closest it has ever been to catastrophe.
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Even as the hands of the Doomsday Clock move closer to midnight, there are many actions that could pull humanity back from the brink:
- The United States and Russia can resume dialogue about limiting their nuclear arsenals. All nuclear-armed states can avoid destabilizing investments in missile defense and observe the existing moratorium on explosive nuclear testing.
- Through both multilateral agreements and national regulations, the international community can take all feasible steps to prevent the creation of mirror life and cooperate on meaningful measures to reduce the prospect that AI be used to create biological threats.
- The United States Congress can repudiate President Trump’s war on renewable energy, instead providing incentives and investments that will enable rapid reduction in fossil fuel use.
- The United States, Russia, and China can engage in bilateral and multilateral dialogue on meaningful guidelines regarding the incorporation of artificial intelligence in their militaries, particularly in nuclear command and control systems.
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Read more: https://thebulletin.org/doomsday-clock/2026-statement/
Not all the Manhattan Scientists were on board with the Bulletin’s gloomy view of the world.
Edward Teller, the father of the hydrogen bomb, very much one of the Manhattan scientists, was an early critic of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists’ gloomy view of the world. Teller and Bulletin founder Robert Oppenheimer had a serious split, especially after Teller claimed in 1954 testimony that Oppenheimer’s should not have a security clearance, despite Teller also testifying he did not believe Oppenheimer had leaked or was going to leak any secrets. In the 1930s Oppenheimer had significant ties to the academic communist movement, via his stormy relationship with communist radical girlfriend Jean Tatlock, though there is no evidence Oppenheimer ever passed any secrets to the Soviet spies who kept trying to recruit him. Teller also apparently harboured concerns Oppenheimer might be working to undermine progress on Teller’s H-bomb project. The US Department of Energy vacated the revocation of Oppenheimer’s security clearance in 2022, though by then all of the main players including Oppenheimer were long dead.
Teller also wasn’t a fan of climate alarmism, as PBS discovered to their embarrassment in 2012.
Freeman Dyson, who missed out on being one of the Manhattan team, but was a significant figure in the mid 1900s nuclear science community, also wasn’t a fan of climate alarmism.
But no doubt this “Bulletin of Atomic Scientists” charade will continue. After all, one of their founders was Einstein.
My only question, when will they move to advancing by small fractions of a second? After all they’ve already burned through most of 7 minutes, they’ve only got 85 fake doomsday seconds left before we hit midnight, and it would all be terribly embarrassing if they ran out of time before the world ends.
Perhaps they’ll start rationing doomsday predictions, or find embarrassingly weak excuses to wind the clock back a bit.
The last 2 paragraphs say it all !
Whoever said that time couldn’t stand still had never observed the doomsday clock because according to its predictions that clock has almost ground to a halt.
I’ve always been amused by the “Doomsday Clock”, because contrary to it’s supposedly “scientific” pedigree, it’s actually just a gauge of Progressive angst over contemporary conservative policy than it is any real measurement of actual threats to our well-being. For example, during the Reagan era it was bumped up to 3 minutes to midnight versus only 7 during the far more imminently dangerous Cuban Missile Crisis, where in hindsight it should have been as close to zero as it has ever been. Without doubt, they were far more scared of what was running wild in their imaginations regarding Reagan than they were of the reality of a green JFK actually facing off militarily with the Russians in realtime over actual nuclear weapons that were pointed at the US a mere 60 miles away.
So now that it’s been moved up as close to midnight as it has ever been for the umpteenth time since, it’s even more amusing to note that it’s not because the real and obvious threats like a near-nuclear-ready North Korea lobbing missiles over Japan or the near-ready fascist mullahs of Iran who openly chant “Death to America” and threaten the annihilation of the Israel and the West. When Democrats begged Biden to supply missiles to Ukraine to be launched into Russia? No movement there.
No. It’s because of Trump and “global warming”, things that aren’t likely to kill us in a flash, or at all.
I wonder how the Doom Clock Committee would answer this analysis from JtE. I think they’d have no response and have to be silent, or resort to name calling, or aggressively lie. It would be the interesting kind of moment that only occurs in movies like Mr Smith Goes to Washington or A Few Good Men.
I don’t think these guys take real questions, because they’re just smart enough to know better. It’s best just to pontificate with authority and assume that their pedigree will do the rest.
Each year wellness visits are part of Medicare, specifically the Annual Wellness Visit (AWV) under Medicare Part B. At that meeting I am instructed to draw a clock on a blank sheet of paper.
I’d like to draw the latest Doomsday Clock, but medical teams do humor only slightly better than Democrats.
We’re constantly being fed extreme left propaganda by the very institutions that are supposed to work in our interests, and, those of us who have the ability to think independently, question our overlords. There are no answers other than emotional appeals to save the planet, while they destroy our lives.
But we see what’s happening.
Every action has a reaction.
fear is useful to governing powers
Clock, weird crazy guy holding up a sign…all the same BS of some “clever guy” trying to make a buck of the idiotic believers who fall for this nonsense.
“The end is nigh”…sickenig fact since the invention of speech…get lost…sincerely. There is no wolf you can call out, if there really was one you’d have your throat already torn to shreds by his fangs. fact. point!
Politics
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