Meanwhile, highly dispersed toxic chemicals can be concentrated by storms, picked up by floodwaters and distributed into rivers and estuaries. Similarly, it’s possible to imagine the effects of climate change causing concentrated chemical waste to escape confinement. Even a few misadventures that reduce biodiversity could provoke social collapse and conflict. Once released, however, such biological “robots” may evolve capabilities beyond our ability to control them. Shutterstock Climate change and affluenceĪs well as being an existential threat in its own right, climate change is connected to the risks posed by these other technologies.īoth genetically engineered viruses and gene drives, for example, are being developed to stop the spread of infectious diseases carried by mosquitoes, whose habitats spread on a warming planet. Genome editing tools are used to create gene drive systems that spread through normal pathways of reproduction but are designed to destroy other genes or offspring of a particular sex.Īn aerial view of Houston showing the extent of flooding caused by Hurricane Harvey in 2017. For example, gene drives are an early example of biological robotics already in development. The movie clichés of cyborgs and “killer robots” tend to disguise the true risks. New Zealand could take a global lead in controlling the development of 'killer robots' - so why isn't it?Īt the same time, the Bulletin has increasingly turned its attention to the rise of artificial intelligence, autonomous weaponry, and mechanical and biological robotics. With increasing storm severity due to climate change, the risks to toxic waste sites grow. That was just one major metropolitan area. An estimated two million kilograms of airborne contaminants above regulatory limits were released, 14 toxic waste sites were flooded or damaged, and dioxins were found in a major river at levels over 200 times higher than recommended maximum concentrations. There are tens of thousands of large scale waste sites in the US alone, with 1,700 hazardous “ superfund sites” prioritised for clean-up.Īs Hurricane Harvey showed when it hit the Houston area in 2017, these sites are extremely vulnerable. For example, commercial chemical use is all pervasive, as is the toxic waste it creates. Many of these threats are well known already. In 2022, their warning extends beyond weapons of mass destruction to include other technologies that concentrate potentially existential hazards – including climate change and its root causes in over-consumption and extreme affluence.Īffluence is killing the planet, warn scientists Mentors of mine, notably Aaron Novick, and others who profoundly influenced how I see my own scientific discipline and approach to science, were among those who formed and joined the early Bulletin. Shutterstock Multiple connected threatsĪt a personal level, I feel some sense of academic kinship with the clock makers. The atomic bomb codenamed ‘Little Boy’, the same type later dropped on Hiroshima, at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1944.
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