It’s the time of year for countdowns and trackers; whether you are recovering from the New Year's Eve countdown to midnight, or waking up to day one of a new resolution.

In Harrisburg, two clocks are up year round to give some motivation and warning.

Anytime you walk past the east wing, you can turn and see large, red numbers ticking away. Advocates have used countdown- or count up clocks- as visual reminders of their push for change.

Right now, a countdown towards climate disaster, and a stopwatch tracking inaction on gun control legislation stand side by side in the east wing of the state capitol.

Environmental group Better Path Coalition helped install the climate clock in June, 2022. The 4 years, 201 days countdown is how long until global warming increases each year at a 1.5 degree Celsius rate. That data comes from the Mercator Research Institute. The group says carbon use causes the rate of temperature increase.

Karen Feridun, a spokesperson for Better Path Coalition, said the clock has definitely raised awareness. She says action wise though, most elected officials cater to the fossil fuels industry and Pennsylvania has not decreased its fossil fuel production.

The other clock is tracking how long it’s been since several gun control bills have gone to the Republican controlled Senate. Ceasefire PA, a gun violence prevention advocacy group, installed their clock after the House passed those gun control laws for the first time in years.

Legislation for universal background checks and extreme risk protection orders—where police or family can request a person be temporarily restricted from owning a gun—have sat in the state Senate for 590 days.

“Our clock is to remind legislators that this isn’t mundane, it isn’t dry—but that there’s real cost to inaction when it comes to gun violence,” Adam Garber said, executive director of Ceasefire PA.

Gun control laws remain entrenched in partisan politics, but other gun violence solutions like community safety and prevention programs have seen bipartisan support. Gun deaths have decreased in Pennsylvania, with rates in some large cities decreased to 2014 levels.

"Most of that decrease is within community level violence and homicides and shootings. Unfortunately, suicides have remained stubbornly high,” Garber said. "And when you consider six out of ten gun deaths are firearm suicides, that's something we need to continue to focus on."

“That deeply impacted rural communities— with some of the highest [suicide by gun] rates happening in the Poconos region and in the Southwest coal region,” Garber said.

Earlier in 2024, there was a third countdown clock. A tracker of Pennsylvania’s state pension debt was in the east wing for eight years. However, the man who sponsored the counter removed it in September, saying he gave up the fight of getting the state to pay off the debt.