{"id":423905,"date":"2026-01-30T15:52:55","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T14:52:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=423905"},"modified":"2026-01-30T15:52:58","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T14:52:58","slug":"oh-no-president-trumps-climate-policies-just-edged-us-closer-to-doomsday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=423905","title":{"rendered":"Oh No \u2013 President Trump\u2019s Climate Policies Just Edged Us Closer to Doomsday"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Ha, the latest update from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists on January 27, 2026, the Doomsday Clock stands at 85 seconds to midnight- the closest it has ever been in its nearly 80-year history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This represents a move forward by 4 seconds from the 2025 setting of 89 seconds to midnight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s a stark symbolic warning- not a literal prediction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"Illustration<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Watts Up With That?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Essay by<\/strong> Eric Worrall<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But if Congress overrides President Trump on renewable energy the world can win a reprieve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It is now 85 seconds to midnight<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2026 Doomsday Clock Statement<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Science and Security Board<\/a>
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Editor, John Mecklin
January 27, 2026<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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Founded in 1945 by Albert Einstein,\u00a0J. Robert Oppenheimer,\u00a0and University of Chicago scientists who helped develop the first atomic weapons in the Manhattan Project, the\u00a0<\/em>Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists\u00a0created the Doomsday Clock two years later, using the imagery of apocalypse (midnight) and the contemporary idiom of nuclear explosion (countdown to zero) to convey threats to humanity and the planet. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Doomsday Clock is set every year by the\u00a0<\/em>Bulletin\u2019s Science and Security Board in consultation with its Board of Sponsors, which includes eight Nobel laureates. The Clock has become a universally recognized indicator of the world\u2019s vulnerability to global catastrophe caused by man-made technologies.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It is now 85 seconds to midnight<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A year ago, we warned that the world was perilously close to global disaster and that any delay in reversing course increased the probability of catastrophe. Rather than heed this warning, Russia, China, the United States, and other major countries have instead become increasingly aggressive, adversarial, and nationalistic.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hard-won global understandings are collapsing, accelerating a winner-takes-all great power competition and undermining the international cooperation critical to reducing the risks of nuclear war, climate change, the misuse of biotechnology, the potential threat of artificial intelligence<\/strong>, and other apocalyptic dangers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Far too many leaders have grown complacent and indifferent, in many cases adopting rhetoric and policies that accelerate rather than mitigate these existential risks. Because of this failure of leadership, the\u00a0Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists<\/em>\u00a0Science and Security Board today sets the Doomsday Clock at 85 seconds to midnight, the closest it has ever been to catastrophe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Even as the hands of the Doomsday Clock move closer to midnight, there are many actions that could pull humanity back from the brink:<\/p>\n\n\n\n