7 Doomsday Scenarios You Probably Shouldn't Worry About (And 2 You Really Should)

1. World War Three

Particularly given the frankly insane political landscape at present, the idea of World War Three might not seem all that absurd anymore. Thankfully, however, the world today is vastly different from the first half of the 20th Century, and many of these differences go a long way to ensuring that WW3 could be off the cards for good.

As recently as the 80s, it seemed like the world was surely going to end in nuclear obliteration, but the Cold War stalemate eventually ended up shoring us up against the threat of nuclear war, with the arrival of mutually assured destruction.

Ironically, now that everyone has nukes, the chance of us all dying in a mushroom cloud is receding at pace. Nobody wants to be the one to push the big red button and jump aboard the MAD train, and no two major superpowers, such as Russia and the United States, want to enter into a direct conflict due to the sheer scale of destruction that would ensue. Instead, they fight proxy wars in an attempt to eat away at each others' global influence, without risking, you know, the end of humanity.

But even without the risk of us all being blown into our own shadows, could there be a chance for non-nuclear global war?

The answer is: Probably not, and the reason is that modern behemoth: Globalisation.

The world is much more connected than it used to be and consumer goods are the products of a global effort. The t-shirt you're currently wearing has probably been to more countries than you have. The economic costs of a world war in the context of global trade are so catastrophic that it is not just the last resort, but completely off the table. The world marketplace is just too big to fail and a side effect of that is enduring, if begrudging, diplomacy.