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Humanity Closer Than Ever to Destroying Itself: The Doomsday Clock Over the Years

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Source: Adam Berry / Getty Images News via Getty Images

This week, in response to the escalating situation in Ukraine, the bulletin of the Atomic Scientists announced that they had moved the Doomsday Clock to 90 seconds to midnight, the closest it has ever been. 

Nuclear war and climate change are the main dangers our world currently faces. The probability of those catastrophes actually happening is measured by the Doomsday Clock, which reflects how close we are to destroying our world. The closer the clock gets to midnight, the more dire the situation is. If the clock hits midnight, well, that means the world has ended. Thankfully, we are not at that point yet, though we are closer than ever. 

The Doomsday Clock was created by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, founded by Albert Einstein and scientists who worked on the atomic bomb in the Manhattan project. It is set annually. For the past two years, prior to the move this week, the clock had been set at 100 seconds to midnight.

24/7 Wall St. reviewed the timeline of the Doomsday Clock to list the number of minutes and seconds to midnight for each year since 1947, the first year the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, a nonprofit science and global security organization, began using the clock. We included the number of nuclear tests conducted each year, from the nonprofit arms control group The Arms Control Association. 

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists first emphasized the threat of nuclear annihilation as East and West nations raced to build atomic weapons after World War II. Over the ensuing years, the U.S. and the Soviet Union (now Russia) took steps to pull back from the nuclear brink. The best years, when the clock was furthest away from midnight, were after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, from 1991 through 1994. (This is what a nuclear attack would do to the world’s major cities.)

More recently, the dangers from North Korea and Iran developing their nuclear program have been affecting the clock position. In the past months, too, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has been threatening to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine as Moscow suffers setbacks in its invasion of the country. 

In 2007, the Bulletin scientists also warned for the first time of the damage climate change could inflict on the planet. In 2015, the clock moved closer to midnight, from five to three minutes to midnight, largely because of climate change. (Here are countries facing the worst climate emergencies.)

Not all the major events that have affected the clock’s position have to do with nuclear proliferation, yet they are just as dangerous to humanity’s and the planet’s safety. For example, as COVID-19 spread across the globe and a pandemic declared in 2020, the clock was advanced from two minutes to midnight to 100 seconds to midnight, where it remains since. 

Some years were actually good in terms of human achievement. In 1969, the U.S. landed a man on the moon, and the clock went from seven minutes to midnight to 10. The clock has not had a good year since 2010.

Click here to see how close the human race came to ending life on earth on every year since 1947.

ESG backlash not stopping bull market in chief sustainability jobs, or pay packages

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Defying supply chain disruptions and macroeconomic headwinds, 2022 energy transition investment jumped 31% to draw level with fossil fuels, according to a report out today from BloombergNEF. The report shows global investment in the low-carbon energy transition hit a new record total of $1.1 trillion in 2022 as the energy crisis and policy action drove faster deployment of clean energy technologies. In another first, the report says, investment in low-carbon technologies appears to have reached parity with capital deployed in support of fossil fuel supply.

The anti-ESG backlash from red-state Republicans making international headlines isn’t having much impact on the corporate world’s rush to find sustainability talent or for that matter its focus on environmental, social and governance (ESG) strategies, according to an A-list panel of sustainability hiring executives and private equity leaders I moderated yesterday.

“The capital flows are still flowing to ESG,” said Paula Luff, director of ESG at DSC Meridian Capital, adding that companies that move themselves notably away from sustainability practices “are going to lose in the war for talent.”

Indeed, the war for talent is only set to intensify, according to the other panelists, Jennifer Skylakos, managing partner of the sustainable infrastructure and energy practice at executive search firm DHR Global; and Heidi DuBois, global head of ESG at AEA Investors. While the number of chief sustainability executives has ballooned in the S&P 500 to more than half from only about 70 three years ago, the vast majority were older men who moved over from other positions in their companies.

Part of the issue is that senior sustainability jobs are so new, with most hired in 2021 and 2022, that the pool of available talent is still quite small, and hugely expensive, the panelists said. So many companies simply add it to the responsibilities of an existing executive. As sustainability starts to flow down through companies, the market for new talent is going to boom, they said.

The name of the panel, attended by more than 100 sustainability investors and executives, was “The Rising Importance of Sustainability and its Impact on Talent Teams.” It was hosted by BoardEx, the relationship mapping company now owned by Altrata, and once owned by my former company, TheStreet, Inc. BoardEx also supplied the CSO data referenced above.

The panelists, a brilliant cross-section of ESG experience and talent insight, also addressed the role of corporate boards and the challenges of building a sustainable structure inside your company. You can listen to the audio recording here.

Latin America stocks in reversal of fortune start year with gains in renewables, ESG shares

. . . . In the U.S., there is a market theory called ‘Dogs of the Dow,’ which holds that the worst-performing stocks in the Dow Jones average will be the best the following year. Sometimes it works, and not just in the Dow. Three weeks into the year, the big gainers in Latin America last year — the oil and gas companies — are slumping as renewable and ESG stocks retake the limelight, writes Michael Molinski. Part of it may be falling gas prices. Part is tied to new Brazil President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. But it’s worth noting, as January trends often dictate the year. Molinski has the winners and losers to date. . .

Read the full story

This week’s subscriber-only insights

New battery source for tidal energy

. . . . One technology that could power the whole planet without the unpredictability of solar and wind? As we have reported several times, there’s tidal; and now a new source is being examined: gravity batteries using the huge number of abandoned mineshafts around the world. Read more. . . .

Manchin’s maneuvering to slow EV tax credits strategy

. . . . Sen. Joe Manchin’s (D-W. Va.) latest attempt to hijack President Joe Biden’s climate strategy seems more of an irritant than a full-scale attack. Manchin threatened to introduce legislation earlier this week that would halt consumer tax credits on electric vehicles unless the Treasury fulfills a promise to provide guidance on how much of the minerals used in the batteries need to be from the U.S.

The Treasury has most likely delayed pinning itself to a percentage because of the firestorm of controversy in Europe around the tax credits. Manchin is now applying pressure from the other side. Like it or not, the government needs to put a number down and stick to it. And damn the torpedoes. . . .

Chevron doubles down on fossil fuel hubris

. . . . It’s hard to see Chevron’s $CVX declaration of a $75 billion stock buyback and increased dividend this week as anything other than a nose-thumbing to President Biden after he asked U.S. oil companies last year to put their resources into lowering gas prices for American consumers.

With oil prices holding steady at about $80 a barrel, there was plenty of room to do something other with all Chevron’s excess cash than funnel it back to executives and shareholders, particularly with renewable energy investments booming across the country.

We’ll know more when the company’s earnings come out on Friday, but all signs are pointing to another bonanza on the back of higher oil prices. Such hubris is always worth pointing out for remembering when fortunes turn in the future. With Chevron’s rivals in Europe increasingly moving into the renewables space, the company is looking more and more like the last dinosaur in the tar pit. . . .

Tesla’s not dead yet

. . . . Time to put away those Tesla $TSLA obituaries. Shares of the electric car giant leaped more than 8% after Elon Musk’s company reported record revenue and profit, and a 31% increase in vehicles sold, to more than 400,000, despite a slowdown in China and concern about Musk’s Twitter infatuation. Still, competition from other EV makers is cutting strongly into Tesla’s market share, which is in part why it cut prices last month. But more than anything, the earnings show that demand for EVs is still booming despite economic worries, and as long as Tesla is the leader in that market, it’s hard to ignore its shares. . . .

Where to charge?

. . . . One of the issues with getting power into people’s EVs is where they live. It’s fine if you own a house in the suburbs where you can install a charging station in your garage. But what if you rent in an apartment complex? Now, several companies say they are trying to come up with a solution. Read more. . . .

Editor’s picks: An iceberg the size of London

Fine print on labor in US climate bill complicates tax credits

Fine print in the U.S. climate bill relating to wage and labor requirements is complicating companies’ ability to qualify for tax credit, Ari Natter writes for Bloomberg Green. The legislation boosted tax credits and provided subsidies for clean energy projects and for consumers. But according to the report, projects that don’t meet certain new wage and labor requirements only get a fraction of the credit. For example, to get the full 30% investment tax credit related to solar construction, developers must pay workers at least a wage level set by the Depart. of Labor and use a minimum share of labor from workers who are in registered apprenticeship programs, the report notes. The Bloomberg report quotes Abigail Ross Hopper, president of the Solar Energy Industries Association, as saying the provisions are “workable” but the industry needs more guidance from the federal government and that “there must be some recognition that in some parts of the country the infrastructure is not yet set up, and there may not be sufficient apprenticeship programs in some states.”

Global green bond issuance could rebound this year

Global green bond issuance in the coming year is expected to get a boost from supportive policies, stable interest rate expectations and a catch-up of postponed issuances from last year, according to analysts cited by S&P Global Market Intelligence. The report notes this could signal a rebound after a 25.6% decline in green bond supply in 2022. The report cites Jianheng Chen, head of fixed income research at Beijing-based CICC Research, as saying efforts to standardize the market will spur growth in China for 2023. In the U.S., analysts see the Inflation Reduction Act, which aims to provide $386 billion in energy and climate spending over 10 years, with related tax incentives of about $265 billion, as supporting green bond issuance this year. Bram Bos, lead portfolio manager for green, social and impact bonds at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, told S&P Global he expects a “regional shift” in the Europe-dominated market, with a growing share of the U.S. and emerging market issuers.

Plug ‘em in: EV batteries could speed renewable energy growth

Electric vehicle batteries alone could satisfy short-term grid storage demand by as early as 2030, according to new research published recently in Nature Communications. The authors say: “EV batteries could complement [renewable energy] generation by providing short-term grid services. However, estimating the market opportunity requires an understanding of many socio-technical parameters and constraints. We quantify the global EV battery capacity available for grid storage using an integrated model incorporating future EV battery deployment, battery degradation, and market participation. We include both in-use and end-of-vehicle-life use phases and find a technical capacity of 32–62 terawatt-hours by 2050. Low participation rates of 12%–43% are needed to provide short-term grid storage demand globally. Participation rates fall below 10% if half of EV batteries at end-of-vehicle-life are used as stationary storage. Short-term grid storage demand could be met as early as 2030 across most regions.” Authors: Chengjian Xu, Paul Behrens, Paul Gasper, Kandler Smith, Mingming Hu, Arnold Tukker and Bernhard Steubing.

Words to live by . . . .

“Every day, it seems, a new extreme weather catastrophe happens somewhere in America, and the media’s all over it, profiling the ordinary folks wiped out by forest fires, droughts, floods, massive sinkholes, tornadoes.” — Journalist Jane Velez-Mitchell.

By David Callaway

What a Nuclear Strike Would Do to Russia’s Large Cities

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Source: Dmitrii Tishchenko / iStock via Getty Images

As western allies of Ukraine send more and more weapons to aid the European nation in its fight against Russia, many analysts believe the world is moving closer and closer to World War III. In January, the United States and Germany announced they would send highly advanced tanks to the Ukrainian front, a move that Russia pointed to as a clear provocation, with Russia’s ambassador to Germany calling it an “extremely dangerous decision.” 

Russian President Vladimir Putin has made thinly-veiled statements effectively threatening to use nuclear weapons if further provoked.  In the summer of 2022, U.S. national security officials said there no reason to be concerned that this geopolitical conflict would lead to all-out nuclear war, but as things continue to escalate, many wonder if nuclear war is a more real likelihood than it has been in decades.

Nuclear weapons have been one of the most existential global threats since the start of the Cold War. Modern nuclear warheads are measured in hundreds of kilotons with far greater firepower than the nuclear bombs used in 1945, when the U.S. bombed two cities in Japan, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, to end World War II.

Recently, 24/7 Wall St. looked at the immediate impact of nuclear attacks on different U.S. cities in what a nuclear attack would do to America’s 25 largest cities. 

Now, we examine the consequences of a nuclear attack on 15 of Russia’s largest cities by population. To find how a nuclear detonation could affect Russian cities, 24/7 Wall St. used Nukemap, a site that simulates detonations of nuclear bombs. We have chosen two typical warhead yields, 100 kilotons and 800 kilotons of TNT equivalent. Metropolitan areas are ordered by total population, from smaller to larger. Population data for the urban agglomeration area of each city came from the U.N.

Russia’s 15 largest cities together make up 23% of the country’s population of 143.4 million. Understandably, the most populous Russian cities would sustain the highest number of casualties from a nuclear strike — namely Moscow and Saint Petersburg. City residents who live further away from the population center, especially away from dense concentrations of commercial and residential buildings, would have a greater chance of surviving the immediate effects of a nuclear blast.

In Moscow, 74% of the capital city’s 12.4 million people live outside the blast range of a 100-kiloton nuclear bomb if it were detonated over the Kremlin. The blast from such a nuke would instantly kill an estimated 251,800 people and injure 1.1 million. (A 100-kiloton bomb is far from the most powerful ever built. This is the most powerful nuclear explosion in history.)

Comparatively speaking, the same nuke dropped on the southern Russian port city of Rostov-on-Don, with its population 1.1 million people, would instantly kill almost as many people as the same attack on Moscow — 225,035 — because only 10% of the Rostov population lives outside the blast radius of a 100-kiloton bomb.

Injury and fatality estimates used here are based primarily on the effects of the nuclear blast itself caused by the destructive high-pressure waves of intense heat and pressure emanating from the massive incinerating fireball at ground zero. These estimates do not take into account the collateral casualties from the lingering effects of radiation poisoning and ensuing famine and disease. (This is what a nuclear war would do to the world.)

Here is what a nuclear bomb would do to a Russian city.
Click here to read our detailed methodology.

Latin America stocks in reversal of fortune, start year with gains in renewables, ESG shares

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Source: renacal1 / iStock via Getty Images

(Michael Molinski is a senior economist at Trendline Economics. He’s worked for Fidelity, Charles Schwab and Wells Fargo, and previously as a foreign correspondent and editor for Bloomberg News and MarketWatch.)

MEXICO CITY (Callaway Climate Insights) — ESG investing in Latin America in 2023 is off to a good start, and the outlook for the rest of the year looks promising.

ESG investing in 2022 was not a good year. It was a year when mining and fossil fuels outshined many investments as a result of the Ukraine crisis and the ensuing high oil prices and supply shocks for raw materials like iron ore and fertilizers.

“The combination of elevated inflationary pressures, geopolitical tensions, and an energy crisis following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine precipitated a volatile backdrop for sustainable investments,” says Sarah Hargreaves, head of sustainability for Massachusetts-based Commonwealth Financial Network.

The year 2022 also brought high demand for lithium to fuel electric-vehicle batteries, and companies like Chile’s Sociedad Quimica y Minera benefited from it by soaring 50% over the past year.

Opportunities for 2023…

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By David Callaway

Most Watched Netflix Original Movies and TV Shows of All Time

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Netflix had a pleasant surprise for its shareholders on Jan. 19. The streaming company added 7.66 million net new subscribers in the fourth quarter, topping its own estimate of 4.5 million, an indication of the strong content that was available to subscribers in 2022.

To compile a list of the most popular Netflix original TV shows and movies, 24/7 Tempo reviewed a report released by Netflix on the most watched Netflix TV shows and films in any language worldwide, based on the numbers of hours viewed in the first 28 days after their release on the streaming platform. Data is as of January 2023. (Not everything on the platform is worth watching, however. These are the worst original Netflix movies.)

It was a tumultuous year for Netflix as subscriptions fell earlier in 2022. The streaming company’s share price slumped to $174.87 on June 1, from an all-time high of $690.31 on Oct. 1, 2021. The stock has rebounded and was trading at $342.14 on the morning of Jan. 20. Revenue is expected to grow through its new ad-supported tier, launched in November, as well as a crackdown on password-sharing slated to begin this quarter.

A variety of films and television shows found favor among Netflix viewers in 2022, a year when Netflix spent $17 billion on content. Of the 40 most watched Netflix movies and television shows on our list, 18 were from 2022. Among the new releases were “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery,” “Troll,” “All Quiet on the Western Front,” and “Extraordinary Attorney Woo.” Audiences also returned to series favorites such as “Bridgerton” and “Stranger Things” last year. (These are the 50 best original Netflix series.)

Click here to see the most watched Netflix original movies and TV shows of all time

Netflix built on momentum from 2021, as 10 of its films and television shows from that year were among the 40 of its most popular. Among them were the series “Squid Game” and “Money Heist,” and the films “Red Notice” and “Don’t Look Up.”

As Europe energy markets steady, a new call for a global carbon price

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Source: Drbouz / Getty Images

In today’s issue:

— Can a global carbon price stave off a trade war over energy? The WTO thinks so
— Doomsday clock lurches closer to midnight on Russian nuclear fears
— Are there enough renewables jobs to absorb the great tech layoff wave of 2023?
— Why your next office could be a vertical solar farm
— Guess how many waterlogged Californians have flood insurance? Guess again.

Late last week in Davos, as most elite attendees had already made off to the slopes or fondue joints, World Trade Organization chief Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala of Nigeria took the stage with a new call for an idea that had been on the back burner ever since Russia invaded Ukraine last year — a global carbon price.

Arguing that uniting the more than 70 current carbon pricing schemes around the world into one global price would cut emissions by more than 3.6% worldwide, Okonjo-Iweala re-floated the idea at a time when tensions are high between the U.S. and Europe over carbon prices. The U.S. is unhappy with Europe’s plan for carbon border tariffs while Europe is uneasy with the subsidies Biden climate plan offers to U.S. electric vehicle makers.

Most climate observers doubt that governments will ever be able to agree on a global price and that ultimately a preferred price will emerge from the many exchanges now trading carbon offsets. The price of carbon has been little changed around €85 ($92) for most of the past year, with the exception of a brief spike in this past August on the European Trading System (ETS).

With gas prices falling, and more carbon allowances coming to market as part of Europe’s plan to wean itself off Russian fossil fuels, there is little appetite for higher prices right now. The WTO’s call for a global price was a timely reminder that there are still ways governments can work together to help reduce global emissions, but like many ideas in Davos it is destined — this time at least — to be lost in the mountain air.

More insights below . . ..

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By David Callaway

The 18 Separate Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters in 2022

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Source: Joe Raedle / Getty Images News via Getty Images

From hurricanes to wildfires to hail, the United States experienced another above-average year of catastrophic weather events in 2022. In fact, eighteen weather disasters inflicted losses exceeding $1 billion, one of which topped $100 billion.  

These billion-dollar (and multi-billion-dollar) weather and climate disasters killed at least 474 people, led by Hurricane Ian, a massive Category 5 storm that slammed into Florida in September. The relentless drought and heatwave conditions that baked much of the country throughout the year, also resulted in considerable losses.

The number of these costly climate events, adjusted for inflation, averaged 7.9 per year from 1980 to 2022. But in the most recent five-year period, that average has more than doubled, to 17.8 per year, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. (Here are the deadliest billion-dollar weather disasters in U.S. history.)

To identify the 18 separate billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in the United States in 2022, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters database of the NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information. The NCEI has been tracking the inflation-adjusted cost of these disasters since 1980, using the consumer price index, or CPI, to adjust for inflation. The NCEI data combines public and private peer-reviewed disaster loss data to provide a historical record of these events as well as to quantify their direct costs.  

Last year saw extreme storm activity in the central and southern regions of the contiguous United States, including massive weather systems that dumped hail in Texas, Arkansas, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, inflicting billions of dollars of damage. (Not all states experience as many natural disasters. In fact, California has had more weather disasters than any other state in the last decade.)

Out of these 18 expensive climate disasters, 11 are categorized as severe storms, meaning heavy precipitation over short periods of time, high wind gusts, and tornadoes, including more than 100 twisters that broke out over two days in April in the southeast.

Three hurricanes in 2022 caused between $1 billion and $113 billion in damage, mostly in Florida, while a stalled storm system over parts of Missouri and Kentucky in July turned creeks into raging, debris-laden torrents that killed at least 42 people and resulted in nearly $1.5 billion in damage.

Here are the billion-dollar climate disasters of 2022.

Hit by a hurricane? Turns out you might turn a profit

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Source: ParkerDeen / E+ via Getty Images

(A native of England, veteran journalist Matthew Diebel has worked at NBC News, Time, USA Today and News Corp., among other organizations. Having spent much of his childhood next to one of the world’s fastest bodies of water, he is particularly interested in tidal energy.)

This past weekend, my wife and I visited her brother at his new condo in Naples, Fla. It was beautiful — overlooking the ocean and both slick and comfortable. It was very nice of him to invite us, especially since it has given him such angst.

Why? Well, he bought the place in the late spring of 2022 — and in September the warming-strengthened Hurricane Ian slammed into the coast just north of his place, meaning the city and its environs faced pretty much the full force of the storm, which had been predicted to make landfall much further up the coast.

Fortunately, his apartment, on a high floor, was not damaged. But the underground garage was inundated with mud and other debris from the Category 4 storm, as was the lobby, the gym and other facilities on the ground floor. And happily the condo is well insured, so owners have had to shell out very little to cover the costs of the damage.

But what about his investment? Surely no one is going to want to buy in the area having seen the devastation caused?

Er, no…

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By David Callaway

Green lights: Top stories this week at Callaway Climate Insights

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Source: ilbusca / iStock via Getty Images

. . . . Welcome to green lights, our weekly roundup of the best of Callaway Climate Insights. We know you’re busy, and we don’t want you to miss any of our great climate finance journalism. So, here are the highlights in a simple and convenient format that makes it easy for our readers. It’s also easy to subscribe.

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Fossil fuel ‘influencers’ add new twist to old game of paid promotions

Matthew Diebel writes that a somewhat insidious salespersonship has come to climate change, with millions being paid to influencers to promote fossil fuels. Turns out it’s a shady business in more ways than one.

Read more

Shades of green: Funds slash ESG rankings on legal worries

Confusion over new European Union sustainable rules for funds and ETFs as they take effect this month portends a difficult period for the U.S. fund industry when new corporate disclosure rules hit later this year, writes Mark Hulbert. It’s like the ‘organic’ label on foods. What does it really mean?

Read more

Why sunnier days may be shining for the solar energy sector

A combination of factors — pent-up demand, new incentives, and progress on rooftop solar subsidies — bodes well for an uptick in installations.

Read more

In snowy Davos, oil steals the climate show

Davos Man has changed in the past decade. He’s richer, writes David Callaway. That’s about all though, as the annual summit of the 1% in the Swiss Alps has presided over a steady erosion in globalization that can be traced all the way back to the great financial crisis of 2008.

Read more

Meanwhile, in California…

There’s some snow in Davos, but meteorologist Colin McCarthy says on Twitter: California’s Sierra Nevada mountains “likely currently hold the biggest snowpack on the planet.” According to state officials, the snowpack water equivalency is currently at 205% in the northern Sierra, 255% of normal in the central Sierra and 293% of normal in the southern Sierra.

Environmentalists wage war over U.S. offshore wind farms

Concerns about dead whales overshadow renewable benefits and lead to rival press conferences.

Read more

Happy hybrid e-birthday, Corvette

For the Corvette’s 70th birthday, Chevrolet has debuted the hybrid eAWD Corvette E-Ray, which goes on sale this year with an MSRP of $104,295.

More greenery . . . .

By David Callaway

The Past 3 Years Were the Closest We Have Ever Come to Ending Life on Earth

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Source: ronniechua / iStock via Getty Images

The end of the world. The Scandinavians called this Norse Ragnarök. The ancient Christians called it the apocalypse. In modern times, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, a nonprofit science and global security organization, uses the Doomsday Clock to represent the likelihood of human-made global catastrophe. And according to the clock, the last three years were the closest we have ever come to ending life on Earth.

The human race faces many challenges that did not exist even a few decades ago. The most dangerous of these are nuclear war and climate change. (This is what a nuclear war would do to the world.)

The prospect of nuclear war has resurfaced amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine and threats from Russian leader Vladmir Putin. The U.S. and Russia have nuclear arsenals that could wipe out life in entire countries, or perhaps the human race all together.

There are also daily reminders of the effects of climate change. Humanity has done little to stop the rise in global temperatures. Seas are rising quickly. Droughts are more common and generally worse than in the past. Hurricanes have become more powerful. Flooding and air pollution will soon make part of the world uninhabitable. (These are the worst cities to live as climate change gets worse.)

The Doomsday Clock, which reflects how close we are to destroying our world, takes these two measures into account. The closer the clock gets to midnight, the more dire the situation is. If the clock hits midnight, well, that means the world has ended.

The Doomsday Clock was created by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, founded by Albert Einstein and scientists who worked on the atomic bomb in the Manhattan project. It is set annually, starting in 1947. For the past two years, the clock has been set at 100 seconds to midnight.

See 24/7 Wall St.’s list of how close the human race came to ending life on Earth every year since 1947.

By Douglas McIntyre

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