′Doomsday Clock′ remains at 2 minutes to midnight

The threat of global catastrophe remains at its highest level since the Cold War, according to the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. The group has warned of a “new abnormal” in regards to world security.

The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists unveiled its “Doomsday Clock” on Wednesday, with the symbolic countdown to the apocalypse reading 2 minutes to midnight — the same as last year.

The group of scientists, which includes 15 Nobel Prize laureates, cites global warming, the threat of nuclear war and the manipulation of facts as factors that have brought the planet “the closest it has ever been to apocalypse.” 

“Though unchanged from 2018, this setting should be taken not as a sign of stability but as a stark warning to leaders and citizens around the world,” the group said. “Humanity now faces two simultaneous existential threats, either of which would be cause for extreme concern and immediate attention. These major threats — nuclear weapons and climate change — were exacerbated this past year by the increased use of information warfare to undermine democracy around the world, amplifying risk from these and other threats and putting the future of civilization in extraordinary danger.”