The Doomsday Clock remains unchanged this year, at three minutes to midnight.
Managed by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, the clock symbolizes how close humanity is to destroying itself, with midnight representing global apocalyptic disaster.
Despite the progress represented by the Iran nuclear deal and the Paris climate summit, the BAS says rising tensions between the US and Russia, conflicts in Syria and Ukraine, North Korea’s recent nuclear test, as well as nuclear modernization by a number of countries, including the US., has offset the positive work achieved in the past year, NPR reported.
As a result, the clock–which was moved up two minutes to 11:57 p.m. last year –will remain at the closest it’s been to midnight since 1984, when the Cold War was at its iciest.
“Three minutes [to midnight] is too close. Far too close,” the organization said in a statement.
