Global catastrophic risks (GCRs) are roughly defined as risks that threaten great worldwide damage to human welfare, and place the long-term trajectory of humankind in jeopardy. Existential risks are the most extreme members of this class.
[W]e use the term âglobal catastrophic risksâ to refer to risks that could be globally destabilising enough to permanently worsen humanityâs future or lead to human extinction.
The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Securityâs working definition of global catastrophic biological risks (GCBRs): those events in which biological agentsâwhether naturally emerging or reemerging, deliberately created and released, or laboratory engineered and escapedâcould lead to sudden, extraordinary, widespread disaster beyond the collective capability of national and international governments and the private sector to control. If unchecked, GCBRs would lead to great suffering, loss of life, and sustained damage to national governments, international relationships, economies, societal stability, or global security.
Some more definitions, from or quoted in 80kâs profile on reducing global catastrophic biological risks
Gregory Lewis, in that profile itself:
Open Philanthropy Project:
Schoch-Spana et al. (2017), on GCBRs, rather than GCRs as a whole: