 From another pandemic to volcanic ash, the British government has casually dropped a list of all the greatest threats to life. Each year, the Home Office publishes a 'National Risk Register' that compiles all the 'most serious threats to the UK'. There are a fair few. The government has counted just shy of 90 ways our way of life can be well and truly upended. They include everything from 'severe space weather' and climate change-induced wildfires to tree-destroying bacteria and public disorder. Government officials have rated each based on a few factors to decide whether they'd have a 'minor' impact on life or be, to put it bluntly, 'catastrophic'. They also try to put a number on how 'likely' they are to happen and, to ensure the UK is prepared, lay out a 'reasonable worst-case scenario'. Massive wildfires, fueled by a heatwave creating tinder-dry conditions, tore through Essex last summer Getty Images/iStockphoto) Out of the 89 threats, a pandemic once again tearing through the country is rated not only 'catastrophic' but also the most likely (between 5-25%.). WHO says that the next pandemic-causing pathogen, 'Disease X', is already something they're preparing for, while the Home Office adds it's 'impossible' to know when it will erupt. 'The reasonable worst-case scenario is based on an unmitigated respiratory pandemic with an unassumed transmission route and a high-attack rate,' the Home Office report says. It adds: 'The scenario assumes 50% of the UK's population fall ill during the whole course of the pandemic, with about 1.34 million people estimated to require hospital treatment, possibly resulting in up to 840,000 deaths.' A civil nuclear accident and a 'radiation release from an overseas nuclear site are two such 'catastrophic' incidents but both have a likelihood of less than 0.2%. Though, with a likelihood of between one and 5% is){kind=link}
NEWS… BUT NOT AS YOU KNOW IT
From another pandemic to volcanic ash, the British government has casually dropped a list of all the greatest threats to life.
Each year, the Home Office publishes a ‘National Risk Register’ that compiles all the ‘most serious threats to the UK’.
There are a fair few. The government has counted just shy of 90 ways our way of life can be well and truly upended.
They include everything from ‘severe space weather’ and climate change-induced wildfires to tree-destroying bacteria and public disorder.