Introduction

Abstract

In 1979, Isaac Asimov published his last major work: “A Choice of Catastrophes: The Disasters that Threaten Our World” (Asimov, 1979 #219). It was on my library shelf and, given the title of this book, I thought I should reread what he wrote 40 years ago. Asimov started with a reminder that the word “catastrophe” from Greek, meant “to turn upside down,” at the end of a Greek play, whether tragedy or comedy. In his book, he considers five possible ways in which human life might end. The first of his typology was about how the universe itself might end, a trillion years from now. The second group was about how the solar system might end, e.g., due to the death of the sun from old age or being too close to a supernova explosion. The third class was about how the Earth might become uninhabitable, e.g., by glaciation, crustal shift, asteroid collision, or demagnetization.