Doomsday Clock 2015: ‘Minutes To Midnight’ Meaning And History Of The Bulletin Of The Atomic Scientists

In 1953, a symbolic clock was set to two minutes to midnight after the United States and the Soviet Union tested hydrogen bombs within nine months of each other, signaling the very real threat of a global disaster. Though the Cold War has ended, the threat of a global disaster is still present. The Doomsday Clock, created by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, was changed from six to five minutes to midnight in 2012 due to climate change. On Thursday, the Bulletin will reveal if the clock will change again. Here's a quick primer on the history of this symbol of apocalypse.

"This symbol of urgency well represents the state of mind of those whose closeness to the development of atomic energy does not permit them to forget that their lives and those of their children, the security of their country and the survival of civilization, all hang in the balance as long as the specter of atomic war has not been exorcised," reads the editorial discussing the Doomsday Clock published in the July 1947 edition of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, founded in 1945 by University of Chicago scientists who were involved in the Manhattan Project, is a magazine addressing global and public policies regarding nuclear energy and weapons, diseases, technology and, more recently, climate change. The members of the Bulletin's Science and Security Board, advised by the Board of Sponsors and the Governing Board, decide if they should change the clock based on what has occurred over the last year. The Science and Security Board features two Nobel laureates, Leon Lederman, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1988, and Richard Somerville, coordinating lead author of the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The IPCC and Al Gore were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. The Board of Sponsors features 16 Nobel laureates.

The 1953 setting was the closest to midnight the Doomsday Clock has ever been since its introduction in 1947, but there have been other times when the world was deemed on the brink of the apocalypse. At the height of the Cold War, including the Afghanistan War, in the 1980s the clock was set to 3 minutes to midnight. "The accelerating nuclear arms race and the almost complete breakdown of communication between the superpowers have combined to create a situation of extreme and immediate danger," the board explained in the January 1984 edition of the Bulletin. The end of the Cold War in 1991 pushed the clock all the way back to 17 minutes to midnight, but it has been creeping closer to midnight of late due to climate change.

In 2012, the clock was set to five minutes to midnight, with the scientists citing the inability to get rid of nuclear weapons and the lack of progress by governments on the issue of climate change. The clock has remained unchanged over the last two years.

Considering the accord reached at the United Nations climate summit in Peru in December, along with a study involving rising sea levels and the recent announcement by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that 2014 was the warmest year on record, it'll be interesting to see if the clock changes on Thursday.