Minutes to Midnight
Okay kiddo, imagine there is a big clock that tells the time of the day, just like the one at your school. Now imagine this clock is special because it tells us how close we are to something called "midnight", which is the time when the day ends and a new one starts.
When grown-ups talk about "minutes to midnight", they are referring to how close we are to a very important thing called the "Doomsday Clock". It's a clock that measures how close we are to a major disaster that could end life on our planet as we know it.
The clock was made by some smart people a long time ago to help warn everyone when things are getting dangerous in the world. They decide how close the clock is to midnight based on things like climate change, conflicts between countries, and nuclear weapons (which are like really, really big bombs that can destroy entire cities in seconds!).
So, the closer the Doomsday Clock is to midnight, the closer we are to a big disaster. When the clock was first made, it was set at 7 minutes to midnight, which meant that things were pretty safe. But since then, the clock has been moved forward and backward depending on how worried the smart people are about what's happening in the world.
Right now, the Doomsday Clock is set at 100 seconds to midnight, which is really close! This means the smart people who made the clock are really worried that something bad might happen soon. But don't worry, lots of people are working hard to make the world a safer place and bring the clock back to being far away from midnight.
When grown-ups talk about "minutes to midnight", they are referring to how close we are to a very important thing called the "Doomsday Clock". It's a clock that measures how close we are to a major disaster that could end life on our planet as we know it.
The clock was made by some smart people a long time ago to help warn everyone when things are getting dangerous in the world. They decide how close the clock is to midnight based on things like climate change, conflicts between countries, and nuclear weapons (which are like really, really big bombs that can destroy entire cities in seconds!).
So, the closer the Doomsday Clock is to midnight, the closer we are to a big disaster. When the clock was first made, it was set at 7 minutes to midnight, which meant that things were pretty safe. But since then, the clock has been moved forward and backward depending on how worried the smart people are about what's happening in the world.
Right now, the Doomsday Clock is set at 100 seconds to midnight, which is really close! This means the smart people who made the clock are really worried that something bad might happen soon. But don't worry, lots of people are working hard to make the world a safer place and bring the clock back to being far away from midnight.
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