As you read this, humanity is merely 85 seconds away from disaster.
This week, leading experts set the Doomsday Clock, a stark symbol of scientific worries about humanity’s, well, doom.
Wars, climate change, disruptive technologies, and authoritarian governments, among other things, prompted them to set it to 85 seconds to midnight.
It is the gravest outlook ever on Earth’s future from the timepiece’s creators, a nonprofit called the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
But does this mean you need to grab your toilet roll and Google your nearest bunker?
What is the Doomsday Clock?
First thing to know is that, no, it’s not actually a physical clock. It’s just a metaphor.
But it’s not a metaphor for a sad blue sky – if the symbolic clock strikes midnight, humanity has failed to prevent an Apocalypse.
Since it was created in 1947, experts in security, nuclear tech, climate and other fields have met to move the clock hands back and forth.
What would happen if the Doomsday Clock struck midnight?
Let’s say the strike of doom happens – it’s 12am. What happens then?
David Orson Newton, a combat veteran and technologist, tells Metro that this isn’t something to celebrate like New Year’s Eve is.
‘A “post-midnight” world does not signify instant human extinction, but a dangerous threshold beyond which global damage becomes irreversible and recovery uncertain, as the institutions, norms, and safeguards that once stabilised civilisation begin to fail,’ he says.
Such disasters include, but are not limited to: a nuclear war, climate catastrophe or an AI-facilitated collapse of the world’s power grids.
In other words, it’s the point of no return, bringing the dawn of a world dominated by the need to survive.
As Newton says: ‘Humanitarian conditions deteriorate for millions, environmental systems cross critical tipping points and powerful technologies outpace our ability to govern them safely,’ he adds.
The author of Seconds to Midnight says that, of all things, a post-midnight world in the UK would likely mean higher taxes.
The British government would be facing an increasingly uninhabitable world, a danger officials can only ever be so prepared for.
‘We would be living with an edge in daily life that most in the UK have never known,’ Newton says.
Newton says such a life would consist of regular phone signal, internet and electricity outages.
Stockpiling up to three days’ supply of food and water would be essential, as doomsday preppers have previously told Metro.
Newton, whose time in the army brought him to Afghanistan and Iraq, predicts that national service would also likely be brought back.
Climate wars – such as over water insecurity or mass migration – could erupt between survivalist countries.
‘As a nation, our communities would gravitate to a notion of service,’ Newton says.
‘From schools to workplaces, service in all its guises would be respected and lauded once again.
‘Why? Because we will all know someone who either serves or has served.’
While evenings spent relaxing watching Netflix, Newton says, will be routinely interrupted by government public service announcements.
‘In short, the relative peace we have enjoyed that many parts of the world have lived without for decades would come to an end,’ Newton warns.
‘We would move into a new climate for the UK, metaphorically and literally, one of heightened anxiety, stress and cost.’
‘This point in itself is Armageddon’
Climate expert and forecaster Jim NR Dale had a similarly… cheery overview of what a post-midnight world would look like.
Our continued reliance on fossil fuels, which cough out planet-warming gases, is changing the world bit by bit.
Scientists like Dale have long warned that this means hotter summers, wetter storms, higher seas and fierce wildfires on the cards.
This is because the complicated balancing act the Earth has to maintain life (like the coral reef and permafrost) is being tipped over.
Dake told Metro that the world becoming 3°C warmer, compared with preindustrial levels, is ‘inevitable’ within the next few decades.
‘This point in itself is Armageddon,’ Dale said, ‘but if we move by 4°C, then that really is the end.’
How close have we come to the end of the world?
Year: Minute to midnight
By ‘end’, Dale says this could mean ‘water wars’. All continents have undergone high levels of drying since 2002, increasing water insecurity.
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With limited water, this could make growing crops and tending to farmyard animals tricky.
‘Hence, an incredibly loud ticktock,’ Dale says.
Why are we now even closer to disaster?
Here are some events from 2025 that scientists said had informed this year’s Doomsday Clock setting:
- The Russia-Ukraine war entered its fourth year, marked by Russia testing (and showing off) its nuclear weapons.
- The US and Israel targeted Iranian nuclear sites.
- China increased its nuclear stockpile, while North Korea tested missiles capable of carrying atomic warheads.
- Risk of a war between India and Pakistan – two powerful, nuclear-armed countries – grew.
- Donald Trump unveiled the so-called ‘golden dome’, a missile defence system in space.
- Climate change intensified deadly weather events, such as a sweltering heatwave that killed thousands in Europe.
- AI technology’s rapid advances paving the way for sophisticated misinformation campaigns.
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