The infamous Doomsday Clock, which measures how far mankind is from Armageddon, has warned we could be headed for catastrophe in 2024 after a year marked by war, political chaos and natural disasters.

The Doomsday Clock has warned humanity could be on the brink of collapse as we head into 2024, with its hands ticking ever closer to “midnight.”

The device symbolically measures how close we are to the point when Earth becomes uninhabitable. It is updated annually by the non-profit organisation the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists in Chicago, US, reports The Mirror.

Rachel Bronson, the CEO of the Bulletin, said: “When the clock is at midnight, that means there’s been some sort of nuclear exchange or catastrophic climate change that’s wiped out humanity. We never really want to get there and we won’t know it when we do.”

The clock was created in 1947 by boffins who helped on the infamous Manhattan Project after the US’ first nuclear bombs were built.

The last time it was updated on 24 January, 2023, its hands were edged to just 90 seconds from midnight – closer than they’ve ever been. This is thanks to a number of concerning international events such as Russia‘s invasion of Ukraine and the threats of climate change and weapons of mass destruction.

The Bulletin also cited biological threats as a contributing factor for the harrowing adjustment to the clock. “Devastating events like the Covid-19 pandemic can no longer be considered rare, once-a-century occurrences,” the Bulletin said on its website. “Disruptive technologies” spreading disinformation and “cyber conflict” were also blamed.

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