It’s almost that time again: Time for the annual update of the Doomsday Clock, the symbol of how close the world is to civilization-ending catastrophe.

First set in 1947, the Doomsday Clock warns humanity about how close – or far – we are to destroying our world with our own dangerous technologies. “It is a metaphor, a reminder of the perils we must address if we are to survive on the planet,” according to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which sets the symbolic time each January.

In recent years, the clock’s settings have mostly reflected the risk of nuclear war and the dangers of uncontrolled climate change.

What is the Doomsday Clock?

The clock has been maintained by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists since 1947. The group was founded in 1945 by University of Chicago scientists who had helped develop the first nuclear weapons in the Manhattan Project.

The scientists created the clock in 1947 using the imagery of apocalypse (midnight) and the contemporary idiom of nuclear explosion (countdown to zero), to convey threats to humanity and the Earth. Each year, experts from the Bulletin decide whether the events of the previous year pushed humanity closer to or further from destruction. The clock “conveys how close we are to destroying our civilization with dangerous technologies of our own making,” according to the group.

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