Nuclear weapons
Biological and chemical weapons
Climate change
Collapse of the global ecosystem
Antibiotic-resistant bacteria
Global pandemics
Asteroids
Supervolcanic eruptions
Artificial intelligence
Unknown threats

Nuclear weapons

Everyone knows that nuclear weapons have the potential to cause instant devastation–a single explosion can leave thousands of people dead. But nuclear warfare can also have long-term consequences.

It would be very difficult to grow food during a nuclear winter, and there could be widespread famine for years on end. This could have disastrous consequences for mankind.

Biological and chemical weapons

While nuclear weapons are expensive and difficult to make, both biological and chemical weapons can be made on a budget. According to expert Angela Kane, both have the potential to cause a global catastrophe.

Climate change

Perhaps the most obvious threat to be included on this list is climate change. Experts believe that by 2100 there is a 90% chance the planet will be 2°C (about 36°F) warmer, and a 33% chance it will be 3°C (around 37°F) warmer.

Of course, some action has already been taken to slow down global warming, but a lot more effort is required if we are to stop global temperatures from rising to these levels.

Collapse of the global ecosystem

An international group of scholars has determined nine “planetary boundaries” that allow the world’s ecosystem to stay stable, and humans have already surpassed the limit of four of those boundaries.

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria

The antibiotics that we currently rely on to fight off many different types of bacterial infection are becoming less and less useful as certain strains of bacteria become resistant to them.

If scientists are not able to develop new antibiotics, the number of people killed each year by antibiotic-resistant bacteria could reach 10 million by 2050.

Global pandemics

The outbreak of the COVID-19 global pandemic in early 2020 serves as evidence that this threat was a lot closer than previously thought.

Asteroids

Although asteroids may sound like the stuff of science fiction, they are in fact a very real threat. When an asteroid hit Mexico 65 million years ago, it wiped dinosaurs off the face of the Earth.

Also according to Spahr, an asteroid big enough could cause the Earth to cool by releasing particles that block the sun’s light. There could be famines that kill off hundreds of millions of people.

Supervolcanic eruptions

While it is impossible for scientists to predict a supervolcanic eruption more than a few weeks or months in advance, data suggests they happen every 17,000 years.

Artificial intelligence

Many scientists are in agreement that AI to rival the human brain could be upon us in the next few decades and it is possible that machines more intelligent than humans will follow.

Furthermore, even if machines are designed with doing good in mind, there is always the possibility they will stop at nothing to achieve their goal, leaving devastation in their path.

Unknown threats

The ability to predict global catastrophes has not always been mankind’s strong point. For example, most people did not predict the explosion of the first nuclear bomb before it happened.