Former California Gov. Jerry Brown, left, and former Secretary of Defense William Perry unveil the Doomsday Clock during The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists news conference in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 24, 2019.

(AP Photo/Cliff Owen)

At a Glance

The Doomsday Clock remains at 2 minutes to midnight. The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists called the current world security situation a 'new abnormal.'

The Doomsday Clock remains at two minutes to midnight and it's all part of a world the Bulletin of Atomic Scientist calls a "new abnormal."

“There is nothing normal about the complex and frightening reality we are describing today," said Rachel Bronson, president and CEO of Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. "Though unchanged from 2018, this setting should be taken not as a sign of stability but as a to leaders and citizens around the world."

The is “an internationally recognized design that conveys how close we are to destroying our civilization with dangerous technologies of our own hands.” These destructive forces include climate change, nuclear weapons, biotechnology and other emerging technologies, according to BAS.

Emphasizing repeatedly that the current world security situation is a “new abnormal,” BAS cited “two simultaneous existential threats, either of which would be cause for extreme concern and immediate attention" as the factors determining its decision this year.

“These major threats — nuclear weapons and climate change — were exacerbated this past year by the increased use of information warfare to undermine democracy around the world, amplifying risk from these and other threats and putting the future of civilization in extraordinary danger,” the bulletin said in its statement.

BAS executive chair and former California Gov. Jerry Brown said "the longer world leaders and citizens thoughtlessly inhabit this abnormal reality, the more likely it is that we will experience the unthinkable."

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The Bulletin was founded in 1945 by scientists from the University of Chicago who helped develop the first atomic weapons, AP reports. Two years later, the clock was created.

The position of the clock’s hands are determined by the organization's science and security board, which is comprised of physicists and environmental scientists from all over the word. They consult with the BAS board of sponsors.

Apart from 2018, the only other year in history in which the clock moved to two minutes to midnight came in 1953, when the United States investigated into the hydrogen bomb, which is more powerful than an atomic bomb, according to the Bulletin. During testing, an small island in the Pacific Ocean was destroyed.

The furthest the clock has ever been to midnight came in 1991, when the hands were set at 17 minutes to midnight after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.