False and misleading information disseminated over the internet-including misrepresentation of COVID-19вЂ™s seriousness, promotion of false cures, and politicization of low-cost protective measures such as face masks-created social chaos in many countries and led to unnecessary death. Here, again, the COVID-19 pandemic is a wake-up call.

The massive wildfires and catastrophic cyclones of 2020 are illustrations of the major devastation that will only increase if governments do not significantly and quickly amplify their efforts to bring greenhouse gas emissions essentially to zero.ДЄs we noted in our last Doomsday Clock statement, the existential threats of nuclear weapons and climate change have intensified in recent years because of a threat multiplier: the continuing corruption of the information ecosphere on which democracy and public decision-making depend. Atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations hit a record high in 2020, one of the two warmest years on record. Instead, fossil fuel development and production are projected to increase. But over the coming decade fossil fuel use needs to decline precipitously if the worst effects of climate change are to be avoided. A pandemic-related economic slowdown temporarily reduced the carbon dioxide emissions that cause global warming. Governments have also failed to sufficiently address climate change. An extremely dangerous global failure to address existential threats-what we called вЂњthe new abnormalвЂќ in 2019-tightened its grip in the nuclear realm in the past year, increasing the likelihood of catastrophe. By our estimation, the potential for the world to stumble into nuclear war-an ever-present danger over the last 75 years-increased in 2020. Nuclear nations, however, have ignored or undermined practical and available diplomatic and security tools for managing nuclear risks. Events like the deadly assault earlier this month on the US Capitol renewed legitimate concerns about national leaders who have sole control of the use of nuclear weapons. Development of hypersonic glide vehicles, ballistic missile defenses, and weapons-delivery systems that can flexibly use conventional or nuclear warheads may raise the probability of miscalculation in times of tension. Still, the pandemic serves as a historic wake-up call, a vivid illustration that national governments and international organizations are unprepared to manage nuclear weapons and climate change, which currently pose existential threats to humanity, or the other dangers-including more virulent pandemics and next-generation warfare-that could threaten civilization in the near future.ДЄccelerating nuclear programs in multiple countries moved the world into less stable and manageable territory last year. But COVID-19 will not obliterate civilization, and we expect the disease to recede eventually. Its consequences are grave and will be lasting. Though lethal on a massive scale, this particular pandemic is not an existential threat. In this time of genuine crisis, governments too often abdicated responsibility, ignored scientific advice, did not cooperate or communicate effectively, and consequently failed to protect the health and welfare of their citizens.ДЄs a result, many hundreds of thousands of human beings died needlessly. The pandemic revealed just how unprepared and unwilling countries and the international system are to handle global emergencies properly. In 2020 alone, this novel disease killed 1.7 million people and sickened at least 70 million more. Humanity continues to suffer as the COVID-19 pandemic spreads around the world.

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