The scientific organization that monitors the “doomsday clock” has published the Doomsday Clock 2026a universally recognized indicator, understood as a metaphor, reminder and warning of the temporal distance we are from a global cataclysm. And there is no good news since the clock has dropped to 85 secondsthe closest we have ever been to ending the world we know.
You already know that this clock was created in 1945 by scientists at the University of Chicago by scientists such as Albert Einstein, J. Robert Oppenheimer and other researchers who had helped develop the first atomic weapons under the Manhattan Project. Since then, the “Doomsday Clock” is set back or forward each year as assessed by the Science and Security Board of a group that includes the advice of prestigious scientists, including a dozen Nobel Prize winners.
Doomsday Clock 2026, a solo 85 segundos
It doesn’t take much of a watch to conclude that the world is not going well at all… Dictators, autocrats and madmen rule a world that is approaching catastrophe. Those responsible for this panel-newsletter continue to warn that – despite the unequivocal signs of danger – world leaders and their societies have not done what is necessary to change course and the four seconds of advance of this year’s edition indicate that we are going to get worse.
“A year ago, we warned that the world was dangerously close to a global disaster and that any delay in reversing course increased the likelihood of catastrophe. Instead of heeding this warning, Russia, China, the United States and other major countries have become increasingly aggressive, antagonistic and nationalistic. “Hard-won global understandings are collapsing, accelerating winner-take-all great power competition and undermining international cooperation crucial to reducing the risks of nuclear war, climate change, the misuse of biotechnology, the potential threat of artificial intelligence and other apocalyptic dangers.”they point out from the bulletin.
“Too many leaders have become complacent and indifferent, in many cases adopting rhetoric and policies that accelerate, rather than mitigate, these existential risks. Because of this lack of leadership, the Bulletin of the Science and Safety Board of Atomic Scientists today sets the Doomsday Clock at 85 seconds to midnight, the closest it has come to a catastrophe..
Catastrophists or warning of a palpable reality?
The Doomsday Clock 2026 cites the main threats that it believes indicate an increase in risk. Some, like nuclear war, have been repeated for decades and others, like climate change, continue to lead the way. This year and as a big ‘premiere’, uncontrolled AI enters the top of the threats.
Humanity continues to face these existential dangers. nuclear wara product of the arms race that is increasing incomprehensibly, is still in the foreground when decades ago it seemed more controlled. World leaders speak openly about the testing and use of nuclear weapons.
Throughout 2025, negative trends, old and new, intensified, with three regional conflicts involving nuclear powers threatening to escalate. “The competition between major powers has become a veritable arms race, as evidenced by the growing number of nuclear warheads and platforms in China, and also the modernization of nuclear delivery systems in the United States and Russia.”they explain.
The United States plans to deploy a new multi-layered missile defense system, the Golden Dome, that will include space interceptors, increasing the likelihood of conflict in space and likely fueling a new space arms race. “While these worrying trends persisted, nuclear-armed countries “They did not talk about strategic stability or arms control, much less nuclear disarmament.”scientists warn.
As for the climate changethe largest global human emergency according to the UN, we are still in the phase of much talk and very few concrete actions. There has even been an increase in irresponsible deniers who deny it when all the scientific evidence speaks of serious repercussions on the socioeconomic development of the world; migrations and displacements; food security; terrestrial and marine ecosystems and the worsening of human diseases.
A series of adverse trends have also dominated the outlook for climate change over the past year, according to the bulletin defining Doomsday Clock 2026. «The level of atmospheric carbon dioxide – the greenhouse gas most responsible for anthropogenic climate change – reached a new high, reaching 150% of pre-industrial levels. The global average temperature in 2024 was the warmest in the last 175 years on record, and temperatures in 2025 were similar. With the incorporation of fresh water from glacial melting and thermal expansion, the global average sea level reached an all-time high. Driven by warm temperatures, the hydrological cycle became more erratic, with floods and droughts spreading across the planet..
National and international responses to the climate emergency “they went from being totally insufficient to profoundly destructive”they explain. None of the three most recent UN climate summits emphasized phasing out fossil fuels or monitoring carbon dioxide emissions. “In the United States, the Trump administration has practically declared war on renewable energy and sensible climate policies, relentlessly undermining national efforts to combat climate change,” they warn.
And now the AI
This year, scientists have added another existential threat of our own making: an out-of-control artificial intelligence that ends up wiping out the world. Daniel Holz, chairman of the Bulletin’s Science and Security Committee and professor of physics at the University of Chicago, talks about the lack of cooperation to keep these technologies under control and its problems due to the acceleration of deepfakes and the erosion of trust in information systems.
“AI is a significant and growing disruptive technology, but it is also fueling misinformation, making it even more difficult to address all the other threats we consider. “Instead of working toward international standards to regulate AI safety, we are entering an AI arms race with potentially dire consequences.”.
AI and social networks contribute to what the journalist and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Maria Ressa, called a «informational armageddon». Without reliable information, we lack the “shared reality” necessary to confront existential threats such as climate change and nuclear weapons. Generative AI enables the creation of disinformation at virtually no cost and in large quantities, along with increasingly convincing scams. «Information integrity is the mother of all models, because you cannot run democracy on a corrupt operating system»Ressa stated.
And another associated risk. Scientists point out that the accelerated evolution of artificial intelligence poses a different type of biological threat: the possibility of designing, through AI, new pathogens against which humans have no effective defenses. “In addition, concern about state-sponsored biological weapons programs has intensified due to the weakening, over the past year, of international norms and mechanisms for productive engagement, dangerously reducing the ability to respond to pandemics and other biological threats.”.
What a world we are leaving… Nothing we didn’t know, but another warning about where the world is headed. Can we reverse the aggravated threats in this Doomsday Clock 2026? It depends on us.
