Extinction is a pressing issue. Humans will destroy ourselves through bioweapons
Berger 19 A journalist who designs and implements strategic communications plans for academic, public and private sector clients. Received the John S. Knight Fellowship from Stanford University and A Bachelors in art and Philosophy from Duke University. (Jody, February 19, “What's likely to cause human extinction – and how can we avoid it?”, Stanford University, https://sustainability.stanford.edu/news/whats-likely-cause-human-extinction-and-how-can-we-avoid-it)
By 2100 – a short 81 years in the future – he sees three potential outcomes: human extinction, the collapse of civilization with limited survival, or a thriving human society. The first two outcomes could be the result of population growth coupled with the increasing destruction of our planet. The growth in global population follows a flat line for most of human history and then, at the turn of the industrial revolution, the – like a hockey stick – as the population explodes. The same shape show growth in technology and innovation –flat for thousands of years and then suddenly germ theory, telephones, airplanes and the internet, all within a few hundred years. Sadly, a graph showing the increasing destruction of our environment would have the same shape and would lead to our demise. “Without a thriving biosphere, there is no human future,” Luby said. Also threatening that future? Our recently acquired abilities to destroy each other with nuclear weapons and lethal synthetic biology. As an example, CRISPR, a gene-editing technology, could be a force for good used to help eradicate disease or it could potentially be used to cause harm, such as by genetically modifying bird flu to become airborne. And, as Luby sees it, “There’s no shortage of sociopaths.”