The clock ticked forward to 7 in 2002, after resting at 9 since 1998. When the clock first started in 1947, the scientists set it at 7 minutes to midnight. 2002: 7 minutes to midnight Bush speaks on the Global War on Terrorism. Next: Terrorist concerns set it forward again during George W. вЂќThe illusion that tens of thousands of nuclear weapons are a guarantor of national security has been stripped away,вЂќ the Bulletin said.

Other moves to step back from nuclear war heartened the scientists. As The Bulletin explained, the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty reduces the number of nuclear weapons deployed by the United States and Russia. | Jan MarshalL/AFP/Getty ImagesДЄt the end of the Cold War, the clock ticked back to 17 minutes, the furthest it ever rested from the apocalypse. 1991: 17 minutes to midnight A visitor stands next to a soviet military truck with a missile at the Cold War museum in a a former Soviet nuclear warheads underground silo. HereвЂ™s some of the most significant times the clock has moved, both backward and forward. They use those to determine how imminent the end of civilization appears. Every year since 1947, a group called The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists has examined developments in politics, energy, weapons, diplomacy, and climate science. The clock, which measures how close mankind gets to oblivion, now rests the closest to midnight since 1954, according to NPR. These failures of political leadership endanger every person on Earth.As President Donald Trump enters his second year in office, The Doomsday Clock has inched closer to midnight. Speaking of nuclear weapons modernization, climate change and the continued existence of nuclear weapons arsenals, the Bulletin writes that 'world leaders have failed to act with the speed or on the scale required to protect citizens from potential catastrophe. In the face of such complex problems, it is difficult to see where the capacity lies to address these challenges,' the Bulletin writes. 'The challenges to rid the world of nuclear weapons, harness nuclear power, and meet the nearly inexorable climate disruptions from global warming are complex and interconnected. The United States and Russia are in talks to renew something akin to the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, and the Bulletin is slightly more optimistic on international efforts to combat climate change. North Korea tests a nuclear weapon, and the West is worried that Iran wants one, too. Russia and the United States still have nuclear warheads aimed at each other, and India and Pakistan conduct rival nuclear tests.ДЄmerica withdraws from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, 20 years after it was signed. The group notes at the time that there are more than 40,000 nuclear weapons around the world. This is the farthest the clock's minute hand has been from doomsday, indicating the group's momentary optimism at the official end of the Cold War. The Berlin Wall falls, and Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Romania break out from Soviet control. Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev have signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which bans a specific type of nuclear weapon.

More pessimism over the state of diplomacy between the United States and the Soviet Union. The United States boycotts the Olympic Games in Moscow. United States and the Soviet Union still view nuclear weapons as an integral component of their national security. And, the Bulletin adds, the United States and Soviet Union continue to modernize their own nuclear capabilities. India runs its first test of a nuclear device. The United States and Soviet Union sign a pair of treaties aimed at slowing the arms race. Most major world powers sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The United States and the Soviet Union sign the Partial Test Ban Treaty, which bans atmospheric testing of nuclear devices. The nuclear arms race begins when the US tests a massive hydrogen bomb in the South Pacific, 1000 times more powerful than the bomb dropped at Hiroshema.ДЇor the first time, the United States and Soviet Union appear eager to avoid direct confrontation in regional conflicts. Alexander Langsdorf moves the minute hand up by four minutes after a Russian nuclear test.

Clock 3 minutes to midnight