There's no such thing as a scale of all the bad things that could actually happen to you and me, but if there were, a 'global catastrophe' would have to rank pretty much near the top of it, no?
These kinds of terrible happenings – defined as "events or processes that would lead to the deaths of approximately a tenth of the world's population, or have a comparable impact" – might only be hypothetical for now, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't be studying them, assessing their causes and risks, and trying our best to prevent them.
-Science Alert
