That’s the somber conclusion of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, a group of scientists who maintain the “Doomsday Clock,” a symbolic representation of humanity’s proximity to apocalyptic destruction. On Thursday, they moved the clock’s minute hand 30 seconds closer to midnight ― the hour symbolizing global catastrophe. Over the years, the Bulletin’s board has convened to determine if they should move the clock’s minute hand closer to or further from midnight. It would first move to three minutes to midnight in 1949 after the Soviet Union’s successful test of its first atomic bomb. Since its creation, the clock’s minute hand has been adjusted about 20 times.

Source: Huffington Post January 26, 2017 16:31 UTC