In celebration of Earth Day on 22 April, it is timely to reconsider the important climate actions that remain underway in Finland and at the University of Helsinki.
Catastrophic risks are threats to human civilisation that would challenge contemporary global infrastructures and jeopardise most of humankind. These may sound far-fetched or a matter of science fiction. However, scientists theorise that an asteroid with a diameter of 10 kilometres that hit Earth 66 million years ago was responsible for the mass extinction of dinosaurs.
Although some existential risks are posed by external threats, like an asteroid collision, many contemporary threats are a product of human activities. Climate change, also referred to as global warming, is one such threat: a small change in average global surface temperature of 2-4 degrees Celsius may make the Earth inhospitable for the majority of the currently existing life forms, including humans.
In the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, it has been easy to lose sight of the extensive risks posed by runaway greenhouse gasses. However, despite the shift in focus from environmental sustainability to national security, the pending climate crisis has been exacerbated by increased military activities from aviation to battlefield detonations.
While we may be mired with doomsday scenarios given the polycrises that currently confront us, the point of research is to contribute to identifying and operationalising pathways to mitigating existential risks.
S.M. Amadae is a tenured political scientist in World Politics, Director of the Global Politics and Communication Master's Programme , and also serves as Director of the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk at Cambridge University . Caro Carter is a master's student in and research assistant for Global Politics and Communication.
