A couple of days ago I stumbled upon the headline ‘Doomsday Clock is now 100 seconds from midnight’, published by space.com. I wasn’t aware of it, but this clock is a metaphor for how close the world is to a man-made global catastrophe. It was set up in 1947 by the members of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, when nuclear weapons were considered the main threat. Today, global warming is also factored into the calculation.

Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, this time around in 2020, it’s the closest it has ever been to midnight. 2019 was the second hottest year in history, and the growing instability in the Middle East and even the possible use of AI in warfare don’t help to move the clock backwards. The picture is not a pretty one, but there is at least one more voice reminding world leaders what is at stake here.