A study published in the journal Global Challenges attempted to identify which countries would survive a global catastrophe better. The research was led by scientist Florian Ulrich Jehn and included an international group of researchers. The study analyzed scientific publications on risks capable of simultaneously affecting different regions of the world.
The researchers examined three main scenarios: an extreme reduction of sunlight caused by nuclear winter, volcanic winter or asteroid impact; a widespread loss of infrastructure due to cyber attacks or geomagnetic storms; and biological threats, including pandemics. Such events could affect food, energy, infrastructure and basic services in different parts of the globe.
The analysis concluded that Australia was the only territory identified as resilient to all three groups of threats simultaneously. The country's geographic location was highlighted as a determining factor for this resilience capacity. The study suggests that island nations or geographically isolated locations would have significant advantages in global catastrophe scenarios.
