Doomsday Clock 30 Seconds Closer to Apocalypse Largely Due to Trump

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has moved the Doomsday Clock 30 seconds closer to midnight, from three minutes to two-and-a-half minutes before midnight, because of a range of issues including perceived nuclear instability, increasing nationalism, climate changes, and the increasing difficulty of security around the globe.

According to The Huffington Post, the clock is closer to doomsday than it has been since 1953, when it was set at two minutes until doomsday after both the U.S. and the Soviet Union tested hydrogen bombs.

The scientists of the Bulletin said they hope the 30-second move spurs world leaders to take action in areas such as climate change and nuclear threats. They admitted the election of President Donald Trump played into the decision as well.

“Never before has the Bulletin decided to advance the clock largely because of the statements of a single person,” they wrote in The New York Times. “But when that person is the new president of the United States, his words matter.”

The Bulletin has been in existence since 1945 when scientists involved in the Manhattan Project — which produced the first atomic bomb — wanted to warn others about the destructive potential of their research. They created the Doomsday Clock two years later and have used it to as a way to vividly portray various serious threats facing the world.

At its inception in 1947, the clock was set to 7 minutes before midnight, and it has been moved closer or further away about 20 times since. It got as far as 17 minutes before midnight in 1991 when Russia and the U.S. made efforts to cut their nuclear stockpiles.

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