The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has reset the second hand on the Doomsday Clock to 89 seconds to midnight, citing the lack of sufficient action to reverse major crises such as climate change and the nuclear threat. This is the closest the clock has ever been to midnight. In presenting the new time, former Colombian President Santos also highlighted the importance of the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) as a path out of this current situation.
In its statement, the Bulletin emphasised the increased risk of nuclear weapons use - which is at its highest level ever - the threat of climate change and the unchecked rise of artificial intelligence among the key reasons influencing these decisions, as well as the interrelations between these three threats and the urgency to tackle them at the same time.
Melissa Parke, Executive Director of ICAN, said this announcement “should wake leaders up - for all of humanity's sake, they need to stop the confrontation and provocations that will lead to nuclear conflict. [...] As we approach the 80th anniversary of the invention of nuclear weapons and the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the leaders of nuclear armed countries should give diplomacy a try for a change, and negotiate the elimination of their arsenals.”
The risk of nuclear weapons use is at an all time high due to a variety of factors: from the ongoing war in Ukraine with nuclear-armed Russia, the confrontation between nuclear-armed Israel and its neighbours, particularly Iran, the continuing nuclear tensions on the Korean Peninsula to the growing nuclear arms race. According to ICAN’s yearly research, unchecked spending on nuclear arsenals by the nine nuclear-armed states has increased 34% in the last five years.
The UN Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty as a way forward
In the presentation of the Doomsday Clock’s new time, former Colombian President and current director of the Elders, Juan Manuel Santos, also highlighted the role of diplomacy and particularly the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons as part of the solution to averting disaster:
“To those countries that want to see an end to the madness of nuclear proliferation which has seen a 34% increase in spending in the last five years on nuclear weapons, with trillions more planned that could be spent on saving our planet or reducing poverty, I urge you to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Half of all the countries have signed it so, it has momentum.”
Until the negotiation and adoption of the TPNW in 2017, nuclear weapons were the only weapons of mass destruction that weren’t prohibited under international law, despite their catastrophic, widespread and persistent humanitarian and environmental consequences.
Four years since its entry into force, half of all states have already either signed, ratified or acceded to the TPNW and more have indicated they will join soon - - including Colombia, which signed under Santos’ government. These states are not only bound to comply with its obligations and prohibitions but also reinforce the message that ongoing possession of nuclear weapons, by any state, is a problem. This in turn strengthens the norm against nuclear weapons, delegitimising them and ramping up the pressure on the nuclear-armed states and their pro-nuclear allies to disarm.
About the Doomsday Clock:
Every year the Doomsday Clock warns the public about how close we are to destroying our world with dangerous technologies of our own making. The choice of how to reset the time is set by Bulletin’s Science and Security Board, made up of scientists and other experts, who assess the existential threats from nuclear weapons, climate change and artificial intelligence to come to their conclusion. This year's decision to move the clock ahead by one second, puts the clock the closest it has to midnight been since the Clock was created in 1947.