Doomsday Clock strikes dour hour

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is moving the Doomsday Clock up to 100 seconds to midnight — a metaphor for the end of the world — in a recognition of growing threats from nuclear war, climate change and disinformation.

It is the first time the clock has passed the twominute mark in more than 70 years of existence, a testament to the need for urgent action, the Bulletin said Thursday, as the nonprofit’s leader warned of influential leaders who “denigrate and discard the most effective methods for addressing complex threats.”

“The challenge is what do we do about it?” president Rachel Bronson told The Washington Post. In the clock’s grimmest moment ever, she believes years of dire warnings have begun to break through.

“People are starting to get it,” Ms. Bronson said, pointing to the movement ignited by teen climate activist Greta Thunberg. “But we need our leaders to be responding.”

Jerry Brown, the former California governor whoserves as executive chair for the Bulletin, had a darker message after the clock was unveiled. The longtime Democratic politician said he sees “a world of vast, deep and pervasive complacency” toward the Doomsday Clock’s message across the political spectrum.

“What is being said this morning is not being heard,” Mr. Brown said. “It’s being ignored. It’s being denied.”

Thursday’s announcement also underscored changes over the years in the threats tracked by the Doomsday Clock, as the Bulletin’s scientists express growing concern about the state of the planet.

They warned in 2007 that the threat of climate change is “nearly as dire” as the danger of nuclear weapons, and on Thursday the Stockholm Environmental Institute’s Sivan Kartha put the issue once considered an “academic curiosity” front and center.

“To test the limits of earth’s habitable temperature is madness,” he said. “It’s a madness akin to the nuclear madness that is again threatening the world.”