The Doomsday Clock will never reach midnight for the darkest possible reason

The Doomsday Clock inched closer to midnight amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine earlier this year, but we’ll probably never see it reach midnight.

Now, that might sound like encouraging news, right? Unfortunately, though, in reality we might never see the clock reach midnight for one very grim reason.

And that reason? It’ll be the end of the world, humans will be extinct and it’ll be too late for anyone to notice.

It comes after the official Doomsday clock was moved forward 10 seconds to “ninety minutes to midnight” back in January.

The clock is a visual representation of how close to oblivion the Earth is. The clock is overseen by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and they state that every time the dial moves, it’s intended as a call to action and a warning of the dangers the world currently faces, rather than a hard and fast timescale of our future.

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“This year, the Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moves the hands of the Doomsday Clock forward, largely (though not exclusively) because of the mounting dangers of the war in Ukraine,” the Bulletin said in its statement back at the start of the year.

“The Clock now stands at 90 seconds to midnight—the closest to global catastrophe it has ever been.”

Now, the group have spoken about what would actually happen if it hit midnight – and because it would result in the end of humanity, there’d simply be no-one around to see it.

Rachel Bronson, the CEO of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, released a statement saying: "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."

So, that’s some terrifying existential dread for everyone to mull over…

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