The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists was first founded in 1945, and is still going strong today. They are a nonprofit organization responsible for informing the public on concerning global issues such as global warming, nuclear threats, and cyber threats.

They are also the ones responsible for the Doomsday Clock. The clock is supposed to represent how close we could be to completely destroying the world. It’s supposed to serve as a warning to those that tend to “look the other way” when it comes to global issues.

Where the hand is placed depends on events that occurred during the previous year. Because 2018 was full of things that could have ended up really bad, the 2019 clock will stay closer to midnight because nothing was really fixed. On the topic of 2018, the clock hasn’t moved from its spot at 11:58 since it was moved there in 2018. This is what the Bulletin members are calling the “new abnormal.”

Basically, the new abnormal is about how society is aware of how close to the end we could be, yet doesn’t really go to make a change. I don’t know about anybody else, but it’s scary to know that as a society, we don’t go the extra step to make the change that could save us from essentially destroying ourselves.

“In a way it’s scary to see that the clock hasn’t changed,” said Hannah Keyes, “it’s like we haven’t learned anything.”

The bottom line is that we as a society need to get everything together and focus on fixing the world, not making it worse. If we don’t, midnight will come fast and it’ll be nearly impossible to fix.