Four threats pushing us to disaster, say Doomsday Clock scientists | World | News
The Doomsday Clock acts as a symbolic indicator of how close scientists believe humanity is to a catastrophic global disaster (Image: Getty Images/Stocktrek Images)
Following the Doomsday Clock being set closer to midnight than ever before in its history on 26th January, the panel of experts behind the predictions outlined four significant reasons for the shift.
The Doomsday Clock acts as a symbolic indicator of how close scientists believe humanity is to a catastrophic global disaster. An international group of specialists regularly adjusts the clock, assessing planetary threats and moving the hands annually to reflect our position as a planet.
This year, they identified four major factors pushing the clock several seconds nearer to “midnight,” or doomsday: emerging sciences such as synthetic mirror life, accelerating AI development, climate change, and possible nuclear proliferation.
Rather than operating as an actual countdown, it serves to highlight the escalating threats facing humanity, with midnight representing the point at which civilisation would face irreversible damage.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is a non-profit organisation made up of scientists, academics, and policy specialists focused on global security. These are their four primary concerns for impending catastrophe.
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Threats from ‘synthetic mirror life’
Novel developments in areas including “synthetic mirror life” are creating unprecedented dangers. Experts determined that current regulatory frameworks for this field of study are inadequate for such a nascent and high-risk science.
Naturally, synthetic mirror life feels like something plucked straight from a science fiction thriller, so it’s hardly surprising that it has raised alarm bells among Doomsday Clock specialists. The concept involves engineering complete living organisms (including bacteria) using “mirror-image versions” of the “molecules that makeup all natural life.”
Scientists have previously cautioned that the danger presented by mirror life is “unprecedented” as it constitutes a life form completely detached from Earth’s existing biological framework, rendering any consequences extremely difficult to predict.
Swift progress in artificial intelligence
Emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence are advancing at a rate that far exceeds our capacity to comprehend and manage their potentially harmful ramifications.
In particular, Doomsday Clock specialists highlight the development of artificial intelligence, which introduces a novel category of biological risk – AI could potentially be weaponised to engineer previously unknown diseases or pathogens against which humanity has no defence.
They point to mounting concerns regarding nations pursuing biological weapons programmes, particularly as international treaties have deteriorated over the past year.
Novel developments in areas including “synthetic mirror life” are creating unprecedented dangers (Image: AP)
Climate change
Climate records continued to tumble throughout 2024 and 2025, with global average temperatures soaring to their highest points in 175 years, a stark Doomsday report has revealed. Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations have surged to unprecedented levels, now standing at 152 per cent of pre-industrial readings, whilst sea surface temperatures and global sea levels have similarly reached alarming new heights.
The relentless melting of glaciers worldwide, exemplified by the disappearance of Colombia’s Conejeres Glacier and Venezuela’s historic loss of all its glaciers in 2024 – making it the first modern nation to suffer such devastation – has contributed significantly to rising sea levels.
The climate crisis has supercharged extreme weather events across the globe, triggering devastating droughts across Peru and Africa, lethal heatwaves throughout Europe, and catastrophic flooding that has displaced hundreds of thousands in the Congo River Basin and Brazil.
Despite these deeply concerning developments, both national and international responses have fallen woefully short, with recent climate summits failing to tackle fossil fuel dependency and the United States Government actively working against climate action.
The climate crisis has supercharged extreme weather events across the globe (Image: Getty Images/Science Photo Library RF)
Nuclear threats
The beginning of last year brought a glimmer of hope when President Trump called for an end to the Russia-Ukraine war and championed denuclearisation amongst major powers. Yet, as 2025 unfolded, nuclear dangers intensified as three regional conflicts involving nuclear-armed states threatened to spiral out of control.
The war between Russia and Ukraine has been marked by destabilising tactics and veiled threats from Russia about potential nuclear weapon deployment, while the May conflict between India and Pakistan saw cross-border drone and missile strikes. In June, Iranian nuclear sites were targeted by Israel and the U.S., with the outcomes still unclear.
Simultaneously, the final significant nuclear arms agreement between the U.S. and Russia is on the brink of expiration, and there are reports that the U.S. may be contemplating a return to nuclear testing, stoking concerns of a new arms race.
