India, Jan. 28 -- In a quiet announcement that echoes like an alarm, a panel of the world's leading scientists today delivered a sobering verdict on the state of our planet: humanity is now a mere 85 symbolic seconds from global catastrophe. The Doomsday Clock, a haunting metaphor born from the ashes of World War II, was moved four seconds closer to midnight-the closest it has ever been-painting a portrait of a world where old dangers have mutated and new ones have emerged, all accelerated by a retreat into nationalism and distrust.

Beyond being a symbol, the Doomsday Clock serves as a global indicator of human-made existential danger. Introduced in 1947 by scientists linked to the first atomic bomb, it shows how near humanity is to dest...