OpEd: The Doomsday Clock is Still at 90 Seconds to Midnight. But What Does That Mean?

Once every year, a select group of nuclear, climate, and technology experts assemble to determine where to place the hands of the Doomsday Clock.

Presented by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, the Doomsday Clock is a visual metaphor for humanity's proximity to catastrophe. It measures our collective peril in minutes and seconds to midnight, and we don't want to strike 12.

In 2023, the expert group brought the clock the closest it has ever been to midnight: 90 seconds. On January 23, 2024, the Doomsday Clock was unveiled again, revealing that the hands remain in the same precarious positio...