The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists will announce on Thursday the Doomsday Clock's 2020 time at 10 a.m. EST at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.
The event can be streamed on the organization's website, on Facebook or below via YouTube.
The announcement will feature members of both the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and the Elders, a group of global leaders who work for peace, justice and human rights.
Speakers will include Jerry Brown, the former California governor and Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists executive chair; Rachel Bronson, the organization's president and CEO; Elders chair and former Irish President Mary Robinson; and Ban Ki-moon, Elders' deputy chair and former U.N. secretary-general
Other speakers will be members of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists' Science and Security Board: Sivan Kartha, Robert Latiff, Robert Rosner and Sharon Squassoni.
The Doomsday Clock, which warns of impending catastrophes, was created in 1947, when the threat of nuclear war was becoming high during the United States' arms race with the Soviet Union. Beginning in 2007, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists included disruptions from climate change in its hand setting.
In 2019, the clock's hands remained at two minutes to midnight. In a statement released with the January 2019 announcement, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists wrote that information warfare increased the threats from both climate change and nuclear weapons. "These major threats—nuclear weapons and climate change—were exacerbated this past year by the increased use of information warfare to undermine democracy around the world, amplifying risk from these and other threats and putting the future of civilization in extraordinary danger."
While the time did not change from 2018 to 2019, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists said last year that "the new abnormal" was as dangerous as the Cold War period.
"The current situation—in which intersecting nuclear, climate, and information warfare threats all go insufficiently recognized and addressed, when they are not simply ignored or denied—is unsustainable," the 2019 announcement said. "The longer world leaders and citizens carelessly inhabit this new and abnormal reality, the more likely the world is to experience catastrophe of historic proportions."
Despite warning about the seriousness of the clock remaining at two minutes before midnight, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientistssaid positive changes could be made. "Dire as the present may seem, there is nothing hopeless or predestined about the future. The Bulletin resolutely believes that human beings can manage the dangers posed by the technology that humans create."
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
