Catastrophes are also, of course, man-made. World War I killed around 1 percent of the global population; World War II, 3 percent. Or take the violence unleashed by Genghis Khan and the Mongol army across China and central Asia in the thirteenth century, which took the lives of up to 10 percent of the world’s population. With the advent of the atomic bomb, humanity now possesses enough lethal force to kill everyone on the planet several times over. Catastrophic events that once took place over years and decades could happen in minutes, at the push of a button.
Minutes to Midnight: Catastrophe at the Push of a Button
