Constructed and activated in 1947, the Doomsday Clock made by artist Martyl Langsdorf with the help of her husband nuclear physicist Alexander Langsdorf, has been set to 3 minutes to midnight – signaling 3 minutes to the self-destruction of humanity by the powers that be and by the environmental threats that had been set into motion by man.
The Doomsday clock is a symbolic countdown to the end of all things when man-made nuclear activity or climate change could signal the end of humanity. It is managed by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists and signals a wake-up call to a time when our planet could be destroyed by our own hands.
The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists adjusted the clock’s hand to 3 minutes to midnight (apocalypse) as a way of expressing the urgent need to address the “unchecked climate change, global nuclear weapons modernizations, and outsized nuclear weapons arsenals.” These are industrial and environmental issues that “pose extraordinary and undeniable threats to the continued existence of humanity,” the group said.
The Doomsday clock was first set to 7 minutes to midnight in 1947 by its maker and then featured on the cover of its Bulletin of Atomic Scientists to capture “the urgency of the nuclear dangers that the magazine’s founders — and the broader scientific community — are trying to convey to the public and political leaders around the world.”
It was moved to 3 minutes to midnight in 1949 by Alexander Langsdorf, and the bulletin said “We do not advise Americans that doomsday is near and that they can expect atomic bombs to start falling on their heads a month or year from now. But we think they have reason to be deeply alarmed and to be prepared for grave decisions.”
The hand of the clock was moved to 2 min. to midnight in 1953; 7 min. to midnight in 1960; 12 min. to midnight in 1963; 7 min. to midnight in 1968; 10 min. to midnight in 1969; 12 min. to midnight in 1972; 9 min. to midnight in 1974; 7 min. to midnight in 1980; 4 min. to midnight in 1981; 3 min. to midnight in 1984; 6 min. to midnight in 1988; 10 min. to midnight in 1990; 17 min. to midnight in 1991; 14 min. to midnight in 1995; 9 min. to midnight in 1998; 7 min. to midnight in 2002; 5 min. to midnight in 2007; 6 min. to midnight in 2010; 5 min. to midnight in 2012; and now 3 min. to midnight in 2015.