The Doomsday Clock will remain at two minutes to midnight for the second year running, scientists have announced.
The clock, which serves as a metaphor for global apocalypse, was moved forward by 30 seconds to two minutes before midnight in January last year.
The announcement on Thursday means the symbolic timekeeper remains the closest to midnight it has ever been, with 1953 the last year the same time was recorded before 2018.
Rachel Bronson, president and chief executive of the The Bulletin Of The Atomic Scientists, said the world had entered the “period of the new abnormal”.
She added: “This is unsustainable and unsettling.
“We appear to be normalising a very dangerous world in terms of the risks of nuclear war and climate change. This new abnormal is simply too volatile and too dangerous to accept.
“Recognising this grim reality we would like to announce it is still two minutes to midnight, remaining the closest to midnight the clock has sever been set.”
Former California governor and executive chairman of The Bulletin bemoaned the lack of regard being given to the danger that the world faces, warning that “we’re playing Russian roulette with humanity”.
The Bulletin was founded by concerned US scientists involved in the Manhattan Project that developed the world’s first nuclear weapons during the Second World War.
In 1947, they established the Doomsday Clock to provide a simple way of demonstrating the danger to the Earth and humanity posed by nuclear war.
Today the Bulletin is an independent non-profit organisation run by some of the world’s most respected scientists.
But their latest update doesn’t appear to have bothered many Twitter users.
User Matthew Moore posted a GIF of Judge Judy, impatiently pointing at her wristwatch – reimagining it as the Doomsday Clock.
While comedian Aparna Nancherla wrote: “Don’t forget to turn your Doomsday Clocks forward & your history books backward.”