Broadly speaking, global catastrophic risk (GCR) is the risk that any major threat or combination of threats will inflict significant harm to human well-being on a global scale. These massive threats can include severe climate change, pandemics caused by pathogens even worse than Covid-19, nuclear war and a resulting nuclear winter, the misuse or poor development of advanced artificial intelligence, and naturally occurring hazards like volcanic super-eruptions and asteroids.
Threats, hazards
and vulnerabilities
Typically, when people think of global catastrophic risk, they think of the major threats humanity could face, like the threat of a pandemic or of nuclear war. Any of these major threats could lead to massive loss of life and suffering, and yet this is only part of the equation.
The other part is the vulnerability of human and societal systems. These systems include governance, the economy, our food, water and energy resources, the environment, infrastructure, and healthcare. Human wellbeing relies on the functioning and resilience of these systems, and a major catastrophic event could lead to a breakdown of one or more of these critical systems, compounding the crisis.
Global Shield is primarily focused on global risk with catastrophic potential. We recognize that communities and countries around the world are already suffering from catastrophic crises like famine, war, persecution, and extreme poverty.
Aiming to reduce global catastrophic risk does not ignore or dismiss the harms that are being inflicted at the local, national or regional level. After all, risk sits on a spectrum, from low to high, local to global. Threats like climate change, disease and global conflict, for example, present current and real-world harms.
At the same time, if not dealt with urgently and holistically, the results could be catastrophic and global. Severe climate change could lead to tipping points in our climate and environment. Local epidemics and diseases in humans and animals could become severe global pandemics. Geopolitical tensions or regional conflicts could conflagrate into devastating conflicts using weapons of mass destruction.
We want to avoid getting caught up in definitional quibbles about the scale of harm “required” for a given hazard to be classified as globally catastrophic. From our perspective, we must reduce the risk of a situation where millions, or even billions, of people around the world face death and suffering. We support measures that will reduce suffering in the here and now, as well as those that look ahead to future hazards.
Global Shield’s all-hazards approach enables better preparedness and resilience to these localized disasters, and our global expansion plans aims to reach parts of the world that are most vulnerable and susceptible to the harms of global catastrophic risk.
Global Shield is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, fiscally sponsored by Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs (SEE). Our organization’s growth and international outreach will depend on continued support from donors, and we appreciate any support you can provide.
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