What is an existential threat? Meaning explained
RUSSIA has admitted that it would use nuclear weapons if faced with an "existential threat".
Vladimir Putin's Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov has confirmed that use of nuclear weapons cannot be ruled out amid international tension following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
What is an existential threat?
Existential means relating to existence, therefore an existential threat is when the existence of something is in danger.
The term can be used in relation living things as well as non-living things.
So it can mean a threat to a country, for example if a nation perceives itself to be at risk.
When asked about the likelihood of using nuclear arms by CNN Chief International anchor Christiane Amanpour, Russian official Peskov said: "We have a concept of domestic security, and, well, it’s public.”
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He added: "You can read all the reasons for nuclear arms to be used.
"So, if it is an existential threat for our country, then it can be used, in accordance with our concept.”
What would be considered an existential threat?
states "something is generally considered an existential threat when it is massive in scale, such as climate change or nuclear warfare".
These threats range from environmental and natural disasters, to biotech risks.
Existential threats to humankind are dangers that could result in total human extinction and threaten the existence of the Earth.
Academics at are studying the types of existential threats to humanity, and how to mitigate them.
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Here are some of the areas they are looking at:
Asteroids
Asteroids are bodies of rock which orbit the Sun.
Smaller asteroids head towards Earth regularly, but they are often broken down into harmless matter when they hit the Earth's atmosphere.
Occasionally a larger and more dangerous asteroid will collide with Earth.
Scientists believe that a large asteroid collided with Earth 66 million years ago, leading to the widespread devastation that wiped out dinosaurs and other plant and animal civilisation.
Asteroids larger than 100m wide hit the Earth approximately once every 1000 years.
So, it is possible that a large asteroid could come into contact with Earth and lead to human extinction, this makes asteroids an existential threat to humanity.
Pandemics
As the last two years have demonstrated, pandemics can be an existential threat to life as we know it.
A pandemic is a global outbreak of a disease, examples include Covid-19, HIV and smallpox.
Pandemics can occur naturally or can be manmade.
A genetically engineered pandemic could occur if a killer virus is created and allowed to spread.
Air travel has made it more difficult to contain pandemics.
Nuclear Winter
Large-scale wars where nuclear weapons are used are said to lead to a Nuclear Winter.
This is the global climatic cooling that happens after firestorms.
It's believed that these post-war fires propel soot into the stratosphere and block sunlight, hence the term Nuclear Winter.
If a Nuclear Winter were to occur, crops would die due to the lack of sunlight and presence of soot in the atmosphere, this would lead to widespread famine which would present an existential crisis to humans and animals.
Ecosystem collapse
Climate change, changes to the water cycle, and the decrease of the ocean's PH are threatening human civilisation according to
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The Earth's ecosystem requires specific variables to be in place for it to support human and animal life.
It's important that certain conditions are met because changes to the Earth's ecosystem could lead to mass extinction, therefore ecosystem collapse is an existential threat.