According to the Doomsday Clock, the world became a little worse in 2014.
The clock is a reflection of society's woes, and a metaphor for how close humanity is to the end of the world.
The clock is adjusted annually by the Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, and was moved up two minutes to 11:57pm this week. Climate change and a failure to reduce nuclear weaponry were cited as the reasons for the pessimistic prediction.
"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," Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Executive Director Kennette Benedict told reporters.
"And world leaders have failed to act with the speed or on the scale required to protect citizens from potential catastrophe. These failures of leadership endanger every person on Earth."
The last time the clock was changed was in 2012, when it was moved one minute to 11:55pm. The scientists cited global warming, potential nuclear destruction, and the H1N1 flu as reasons for the change.
World leaders are expected to converge in Paris later this year to form a climate change plan that will take effect in 2020, but some scientists have criticised the perceived lack of action to reduce carbon emissions.
"Steps seen as bold in light of today's extremely daunting political opposition to climate action do not even match the expectations of five years ago, to say nothing of the scientific necessity," Board member and Stockholm Environment Institute senior scientist Sivan Kartha lamented.
"The results are unsurprising. Global greenhouse gas emission rates are now 50 per cent higher than they were in 1990," he continued. "Emission rates have risen since 2000 by more than in the previous three decades combined."
The nuclear gains in countries that are not members of the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons were also disturbing to the scientists. They also criticised the US and Russia for not doing enough to decrease their arsenals.
"Since the end of the Cold War, there has been cautious optimism about the ability of nuclear weapon states to keep the nuclear arms race in check and to walk back slowly from the precipice of nuclear destruction," Board member and director and senior fellow at the Proliferation Prevention Program Center for Strategic and International Studies Sharon Squassoni explained.
"That optimism has essentially evaporated in the face of two trends: sweeping nuclear weapons modernisation programmes and a disarmament machinery that has ground to a halt."
