A global disaster can be defined as any catastrophic event that incurs human, material, economic, systemic and environmental losses on a large enough scale to overwhelm the capacity of communities impacted to cope with their existing resources. The setting of Ada's worrisome anticipated future could be brought on by any number of disasters, such as a nuclear winter, a super volcanic eruption, or asteroid or comet impact. Ada's anxiety is a real one- what would happen if a catastrophe wiped out most of the systems we rely on to survive as a species? Interestingly, it isn't a question that has been comprehensively studied much, mostly because universities and governments have very little motivation to plan for a future in which their nation or organization likely does not exist.

One academic, Oxford University's Luisa Rodriguez, has a relatively positive view on the survival of humanity in the event of a catastrophe. In most scenarios, catastrophes are incredibly non-uniform in their effects. So if in some places there exists mass starvation, in all likelihood there will be other locations where people will be able to fish, eat seaweed, or grow potatoes. The same goes for infectious disease- while in some places people might be more susceptible to plagues, in other places the community will have likely built up some kind of immunity.

Another danger lies in the idea of indirect extinction: where communities are able to survive but humanity as a whole is unable to return to the level of technological ability it previously achieved. But examples abound of technological ingenuity from people in limiting conditions. Cuba, in the midst of a trade embargo and diplomatic isolation, produced a "market...of people who can rig things up." In Bosnia, during a wartime siege, there was no electricity. Residents then created small power stations, looking for materials in construction sites, broken cars and other wreckage, and created hydropower.

Looking to the future, there are scientists and organizations doing work to ensure the future of humanity right now. This podcast details the current state of science regarding resilient foods, including seaweed and cellulose generated from wood. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault offers long term, safe, free storage of duplicate seed samples that are already stored in the world's gene banks. The vault is like a back up generator for the world's seed diversity. Owned by Norway and operated in a partnership between the Norwegian Ministry of Agriculture and Food and the Crop Trust, the vault has a capacity of 4.5 million seed samples. It is estimated that a maximum of 2.25 billion seeds can be stored in the facility at one time, and it currently holds more than 1.3 million seed samples.

Watch the entire Ada series with this playlist.

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