Yemen facing the 'world's worst famine in 100 years' if fighting does not stop

I see what you're saying and why you're pessimistic about it. We've somehow managed to make it this far despite nuclear and biological weapons where messing up once leads to ending it all. That could be entirely due to luck--or maybe our institutions and society is more robust than it appears. I tend not to think we'll wipe ourselves out environmentally because even if the entire world took the path of China (which I'd consider the worst-case scenario), we'd be living with a toxic air soup and poisoned rivers but still living. Clearly that's not a world or life I want, however. Humans are perhaps bad at estimating true risk, and there is an asymmetry in outcomes here--better economy and material prosperity with some environmental destruction vs possible total annihilation if the environment is destroyed too much--so it could make sense to be more conservative regarding the environment than the naive utility calculations might show. Changing topics slightly, do you consider AI as one of these existential threats? I consider it one and could easily imagine the science fiction scenarios where autonomous machines consume and harvest entire planets for more resources. Plus even if it doesn't lead to this apocalypse, at a minimum you're looking at billions of people who suddenly have to change how they live/work/etc. As a another aside, what do you consider the solution to environmental problems? Is it even possible or feasible for humans in an industrial society to give up their profligate lifestyles?