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A global catastrophic risk or a doomsday scenario is a hypothetical event that could damage human well-being on a global scale, [2] even endangering or destroying modern civilization. [3] An event that could cause human extinction or permanently and drastically curtail humanity's existence or potential is known as an " existential risk ".
Scenarios in which a global catastrophic risk creates harm have been widely discussed. Some sources of catastrophic risk are anthropogenic (caused by humans), such as global warming, [1] environmental degradation, and nuclear war. [2] Others are non-anthropogenic or natural, such as meteor impacts or supervolcanoes.
Gray goo (also spelled as grey goo) is a hypothetical global catastrophic scenario involving molecular nanotechnology in which out-of-control self-replicating machines consume all biomass (and perhaps also everything else) on Earth while building many more of themselves, [1] [2] a scenario that has been called ecophagy (the literal consumption of the ecosystem). [3]
A plausible and significant contributor to global catastrophic risk; the potential for climate change to be a global catastrophic threat can be referred to as "catastrophic climate change". Global decimation risk: The probability of a loss of 10% (or more) of global population and the severe disruption of global critical systems (such as food ...
A global issue is a matter of public concern worldwide. This list of global issues presents problems or phenomena affecting people around the world, including but not limited to widespread social issues , economic issues , and environmental issues .
An existential risk is "a risk that threatens the destruction of humanity’s longterm potential", [8]: 59 including risks which cause human extinction or permanent societal collapse. Examples of these risks include nuclear war , natural and engineered pandemics , climate change and civilizational collapse , stable global totalitarianism , and ...
The historical precursors of existential risks studies can be found in early 19th-century thought around human extinction and the more recent models and theories of global catastrophic risk that date mainly to the Cold War period, especially the thinking around a hypothetical nuclear holocaust. [7]
Global heating, although it is catastrophic, is merely one aspect of a profound polycrisis that includes environmental degradation, rising economic inequality, and biodiversity loss. Climate change is a glaring symptom of a deeper systemic issue: ecological overshoot, where human consumption outpaces the Earth's ability to regenerate.