Scientists warn that failure of global leadership is driving the world closer to catastrophe

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Source: India Tomorrow

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, founded by Albert Einstein and others in 1947 in the US, has warned that the world is closer to catastrophe.

The Bulletin, a non-profit organisation with eight Nobel Prize winners on its board, has given the forecast in its annual assessment report released at a press conference in Washington on January 27.

Accordingly, the Bulletin has moved its “Doomsday Clock” to 85 seconds to midnight, the closest it has been to the metaphorical point of global catastrophe. The Doomsday Clock is a metaphorical timepiece meant to depict how close humanity is to destruction.

As the Doomsday Clock works as a bridge between the scientific experts and the general public, the Bulletin’s statement has asked the people to bring pressure on nuclear powers to change their course to avoid any potential destruction.

The assessment of the scientists is based on the aggressive behaviour by nuclear powers Russia, China and the U.S., decreasing control on nuclear arms, Russia-Ukraine war in Ukraine and conflicts in the Middle East, failure to sufficiently address environmental threats, , unregulated Artificial Intelligence, biotechnology risks and the spread of disinformation that pose serious risk for global disaster.

However, the Bulletin’s statement has conveniently omitted the mentioning of Israel’s ongoing genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza, indicating that Israel’s war against its neighbours does not at all contribute to the catastrophe that the Bulletin has predicted though Israel’s war against its neighbours has the potential to lead to the Third World War.

The Doomsday Clock is historically significant because it transformed the threat of nuclear war into a universally understood symbol of urgency.  The so-called Chicago group of scientists involved in the Manhattan Project created it in 1947, amid the Cold War tensions that followed World War II, to alert the public to the growing risk of global destruction.

In the Doomsday Clock, midnight is the theoretical point of annihilation. It is now four seconds closer than it was set last year. The scientists have voiced concern about threats of unregulated integration of AI into military systems and its potential misuse in aiding the creation of biological threats, as well as AI’s role in spreading disinformation globally. They also noted continuing challenges posed by climate change.

“The Doomsday Clock is about global risks, and what we have seen is a global failure in leadership,” nuclear policy expert Alexandra Bell, the Bulletin’s president and Chief Executive Officer, was quoted by the global media platforms as saying. “No matter the government, a shift towards neo-imperialism and an Orwellian approach to governance will only serve to push the clock towards midnight,” Bell said in Washington, D.C., over the week-end.

It is the third time in the past four years that the scientists have moved the clock closer to midnight. “Longstanding diplomatic frameworks are under duress or collapsing, the threat of explosive nuclear testing has returned, proliferation concerns are growing, and there were three military operations taking place under the shadow of nuclear weapons and the associated escalatory threat. The risk of nuclear use is unsustainably and unacceptably high,” Bell said.

The Bulletin, a non-profit organisation founded by Albert Einstein, J. Robert Oppenheimer, and other scientists, unveiled its annual assessment at a news conference in Washington, D.C., on January 27. Evidently, a toxic combination of escalating nuclear threats, unchecked climate change, disruptive technologies like AI, and the erosion of international cooperation are all to blame for the impending destruction.

The Doomsday Clock time is annually determined by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ Science and Security Board (SASB) in consultation with its Board of Sponsors, which includes eight Nobel Laureates. The Clock’s time changed most recently in January 2025, when the Doomsday Clock was set at 89 seconds to midnight.

Russia’s continued war in Ukraine, the U.S. and Israeli bombing of Iran and border clashes between India and Pakistan are the factors contributing to the world facing the threat of catastrophe.  Besides, the last remaining nuclear arms pact between the U.S. and Russia – the New START treaty – expires on February 5. The New START treaty is a major nuclear arms control agreement between the United States and Russia designed to limit both countries’ strategic nuclear arsenals and provide transparency about their nuclear forces. The treaty that came into force on February 5, 2011, was set to last 10 years. It was given a five-year extension in February 2011, which is coming to an end on February 5, 2026.

 Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed in September 2025 that the New START treaty be extended by another five years but President Donald trump has not responded so far.  Western security analysts are divided about Putin’s offer.

No nuclear power, other than North Korea most recently in 2017, has conducted explosive nuclear testing in more than a quarter century. On the other hand, Trump seems to be too keen to change the world order once again, as he sent U.S. forces to capture Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, threatened other Latin American countries, vowed to restore U.S. dominance in the Western Hemisphere, talked about annexing Greenland and imperiled transatlantic security cooperation.

Russia launched its large-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and there is no end in sight. Russia released video in December of what it said was the deployment of the Oreshnik missile in Belarus, a move meant to boost the Russian ability to strike targets across Europe. “Russia, China, the United States and other major countries have become increasingly aggressive and nationalistic,” Bell said.

The international cooperation needed to reduce risks of nuclear war, climate change, misuse of biotechnology, potential AI-related hazards and other apocalyptic dangers is gradually deteriorating.

Maria Ressa, a 2021 Nobel Peace Prize recipient for her journalistic efforts exposing abuses of power in the Philippines including how social media platforms were used to spread disinformation, participated in the announcement by the Bulletin. Ressa lamented the rise of technology that circulates lies more quickly than facts. “We are living through an information Armageddon which was brought about by the technology that rules our lives, from social media to generative AI. None of that tech is anchored in facts. Your chatbot is nothing but a probabilistic machine,” Ressa said.

It is not just the threat of nuclear war that has alarmed the Bulletin’s experts. Climate change, too, remains a dire and growing concern. Greenhouse gas emissions have reached new highs, and the Bulletin was blunt in its criticism of national and international responses. “None of the three most recent U.N. climate summits emphasised phasing out fossil fuels or monitoring carbon dioxide emissions,” the group noted.

In the U.S., the Trump administration has essentially declared war on renewable energy and sensible climate policies, relentlessly gutting national efforts to combat climate change, said the Bulletin.

Despite these setbacks, there were glimmers of progress: renewable energy, particularly wind and solar, saw record growth in 2024. For the first time, renewable and nuclear energy together accounted for more than 40% of global electricity generation. Yet, the Bulletin insisted that these gains are not enough to counteract the destructive policies and insufficient action seen worldwide.

The Bulletin’s recommendations were direct, reflecting the seriousness of the challenge before mankind. The experts called on the U.S. to re-engage in dialogue with Russia and China, particularly on limiting nuclear arsenals and establishing international guidelines for AI and biotechnology. Congress, the Bulletin argued, should “repudiate President Trump’s war on renewable energy” and incentivise reductions in fossil fuel use. The group stressed that only through radical collaboration and the rebuilding of trust can humanity hope to turn back the clock.