Species-wide Threats

Species-wide threats (hence only ST), are events or situations that are widely agreed upon to endanger the whole human species. This designation fell originally upon the United Nations of Earth, but after the Great Exodus following Earth's climate changes, only known government to designate STs was the Centarian Empire.

For an event or situation to be designated as an ST, there needs to be at least 40% chance that humanity's capability to perform interstellar travel would be taken away (at least for three centuries) due to it's consequences. This was put in place due to the obvious need for the human species to be spread around multiple solar systems, so that at least a part of mankind would survive, if another happened to fall. For that purpose, interstellar travel is defined as a safe journey of at least 50,000 individuals within 10 standard years to any adjacent solar system.

As of the year 48.809, there were three recorded STs in human history. The first was designated in the year of 2053 as Global Climate Change, leading to a rapid development of interplanetary travel capabilities, as well as terraforming technologies. The latter was found to be discovered too late to save the Earth, however helped with colonization and further terraforming of Mars over the next two millenia.

The second ST was designated in the year of 12.228 as Global Gene Deterioration. It was discovered that the utter lack of evolutionary pressures in human society, combined with constant and unchecked natural mutation upon conception, led our gene pool to drastically worsen in quality, resulting in as many as half of recorded pregnancies ending in a miscarriage. Other, albeit less visible effects of Global Gene Deterioration included gradual lowering of physical and mental capabilities of an average human by at least 10% by the end of the year 12300. The second ST was mostly resolved by the end of 13th millennium, mostly thanks to previously banned gene manipulation.

The third ST was designated in the year of 45.716 as Interstellar Energy Crisis, although it gathered very little public attention due to it's lack of immediate consequences. As of the year 48.809, the IEC remained without any practical or theoretical solution, and was agreed to one day be the end of most, if not all the life in the Universe.