The risks posed by nuclear proliferation, climate change and the pandemic, in particular, have this year been exacerbated by "a dysfunctional information ecosystem that undermines rational decision-making", notes the organization which, since the Cold War , determines this allegory of our exposure to global dangers.

“We are stuck in a perilous moment, which brings neither stability nor security,” said academic Sharon Squassoni, one of the editors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which runs this clock.

"The doomsday clock continues to hover above our heads, reminding us of the work needed to ensure a safer and healthier planet," said NGO President Rachel Bronson.

“If humanity is to avoid an existential catastrophe, which would eclipse all that it has ever seen, national leaders must do a much better job of countering misinformation, heeding science and cooperating,” she said. for follow-up.

More than in previous years, the issue of information is seen as crucial by the NGO.

Herb Lin, digital security expert, has worried that no "rational argument" will now suffice to persuade people with entrenched beliefs, leading to "fractures in our common understanding of what is true".

According to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 2021 brought no significant change for the climate.

"Last year...we had the heat dome over North America, fires all over the world, droughts and floods, but that's just a sample of what awaits us if we don't reduce carbon dioxide emissions to zero," said Raymond Pierrehumbert, professor of physics at the University of Oxford.

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists was founded in 1945 by Albert Einstein, Robert Oppenheimer and scientists who worked on the "Manhattan" project, which produced the first atomic bomb.

The apocalypse clock, created in 1947, initially responded to the nuclear danger and the growing tensions between the two blocs, but today takes into account the Covid-19, the climate or even "state disinformation campaigns".

The scientific and security council of the NGO, in charge of the clock, is mainly made up of American academics, specialists in nuclear security, the climate or political science.

The apocalypse clock when it was created indicated seven minutes to midnight. In 1991, at the end of the Cold War, it had gone back to 17 minutes before midnight.

In 1953, as well as in 2018 and 2019, it displayed midnight minus 2.

© 2022 AFP