Are There Real Global Catastrophic Biological Risks?

Biosecurity and biodefence (i.e. all countermeasures preventing the spread of a biological agent in the environment and population) are on the routine agenda of states and their militaries. Somewhat on the sidelines are the Global Catastrophic Biological Risks (GCBRs), which can destroy the human community as a biological species. Although a precise definition of what constitutes a Global Catastrophic Biological Risk is still being sought, it can be said to be the impact of potential Global Catastrophic Risks (GCRs) on the social, economic, and biological fabric of human existence. It follows that GCBRs are a subset of GCRs. It is also open to debate whether, in the case of GCBRs, the risk must necessarily be biological agents, from viruses to humans, or whether anthropogenic threats can also be accepted as risk agents, or what the impact must be for the risk to be included under the GCBR label.