The doomsday clock, designed to be a measure of how close to our own annihilation we all are, has been moved closer to midnight, signalling the impending doom of the entire race.

The Chicago-based Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists are the ones in charge of the Doomsday Clock, and they decide whether or not to move it closer to midnight (aka Doomsday) or further away, depending on global events.

This week, they decided to push it a significant two minutes closer to midnight, meaning that we are now just three minutes away from the end of the planet as we know it.

The Doomsday Clock was first devised in1947, and has only been adjusted 18 times since then, including at the end of the Cold War, when it was as far back as 17 minutes away from midnight, to as close as two minutes to midnight when the US began testing hydrogen bombs. 

It hasn't been adjusted since 2012, but recent reports that human activity is altering the planet's atmosphere at unprecedented rates and fresh concerns over a nuclear arms race have caused them to make the significant move forward.

Speaking at a news conference regarding the decision to adjust the clock, Bulletin Executive Director Kennette Benedict said "today, unchecked climate change and a nuclear arms race resulting from modernisation of huge arsenals pose extraordinary and undeniable threats to the continued existence of humanity", adding that failure from governments to take requisite action on countless warnings "endanger every person on Earth".

While that outlook is quite bleak, she did say that it is not too late to implement changes that can help avoid wiping ourselves out, "but the window for action is closing rapidly. The world needs to be awakened from its lethargy and start making changes".

Via RTÉ