January 29, 2025

Members of the Bulletin's Science and Security Board announce the 2026 Doomsday Clock time. From left to right: Jon B. Wolfsthal, Asha M. George, Steve Fetter, and Bulletin President and CEO Alexandra Bell. (Credit: Jamie Christiani)

2026 DOOMSDAY CLOCK STATEMENT

Read the 2026 Doomsday Clock statement

A year ago, the Bulletin's Science and Security Board warned that the world was perilously close to global disaster and that any delay in reversing course increased the probability of catastrophe. Rather than heed this warning, Russia, China, the United States, and other major countries have instead become increasingly aggressive, adversarial, and nationalistic. Read more.

NUCLEAR RISK STATEMENT

Sliding further down a slippery nuclear slope

In 2025, the world slipped closer to normalizing nuclear risks, reports the Bulletin's Science and Security Board. The lack of leadership on nuclear issues is concerning, with no country stepping up to stem the growing sense of disorder and breakdown of norms. Read more.

CLIMATE CHANGE STATEMENT

A troubling climate outlook

Record-breaking climate trends continued in 2024 and 2025. Globally averaged temperature in 2024 was at the warmest level in 175 years of record-keeping. Likewise, atmospheric carbon dioxide—the greenhouse gas most responsible for human-caused climate change—reached a new high of 152 percent of 1750 levels. Read more.

DISRUPTIVE TECHNOLOGIES STATEMENT

A wide array of potential threats

Increasing chaos, disorder, and dysfunction in the world's information ecosystem threaten society's capacity to address difficult challenges in 2025, and it is clear that AI has great potential to accelerate these processes of information corruption. Read more.

BIOSECURITY STATEMENT

Four major concerns

Against a backdrop of infectious disease threats like avian influenza, four major concerns—the possibility that scientists could create mirror life, the continued evolution of AI and biological weapons programs, and the rapid dismantling and degradation of US public health infrastructure—all endangered the world in 2025. Read more.

IN THE NEWS

By all measures

How do we navigate our derangement of scale? B. R. Cohen explores this question with Bulletin Science and Security Board member Robert Socolow in this feature story by Longreads. Read more.

IN THE NEWS

'Failure of leadership:' Doomsday Clock head explains current setting

Doyle Rice of USA TODAY talked to Bulletin president and CEO Alexandra Bell about the 2026 Doomsday Clock announcement and what people can do to keep the Clock from moving closer to midnight. "These problems can seem overwhelming, but we can turn back the Doomsday Clock," Bell said. "No one can do everything, but everyone can do something." Read more.

IN THE NEWS

These scientists say the world is closer than ever to 'doomsday'

The Washington Post's Dino Grandoni shares an overview of the 2026 Doomsday Clock announcement, the history of the internationally known symbol, and the overarching purpose of the Clock. Read more.

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QUOTE OF THE DAY

“This is a warning that we need to take urgent action to avoid global catastrophe. We should know that the risk of nuclear war is the highest since the end of the Cold War."

— Hideo Asano, coordinator of the Japan Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons in Tokyo, "Doomsday Clock ticks closer than ever to apocalypse," The New York Times

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