Doomsday Clock Fast Forwarded Again: Armageddon Predicted to Commence 3 Minutes till Midnight

The Doomsday Clock has been adjusted. The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists announced that the clock has been set at three minutes to midnight, the closest that it has ever been to the "End of it All" since 1984.

According to the Bulletin, the iconic clock's time was changed to account for factors such as climate change.

"Today, unchecked climate change and a nuclear arms race resulting from modernization of huge arsenals pose extraordinary and undeniable threats to the continued existence of humanity. And world leaders have failed to act with the speed or on the scale required to protect citizens from potential catastrophe," said Kennette Benedict, executive director of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, in a news release. "These failures of leadership endanger every person on Earth."

"Efforts at reducing global emissions of heat-trapping gases have so far been entirely insufficient to prevent unacceptable climate disruption. Unless much greater emissions reductions occur very soon, the countries of the world will have emitted enough carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases by the end of this century to profoundly transform the Earth's climate," the Bulletin's Richard Somerville added. "This threat looms over all of humanity. We all need to respond now, while there is still time."

The clock was started in 1947 by a group of scientists and nuclear experts who meet frequently to determine whether the time on the clock needs to be changed.

In 1991, the clock was set at 17 minutes to midnight, which was the furthest it has ever been. Since then, the clock has moved closer and closer to doomsday with the exception of year 2010 when the clock moved back one minute. The closest the clock has ever been to doomsday was in 1953 when it was set at 11:58 p.m.

The timeline of the clock over the years can be found here.