In this way, existential risk was a highly influential idea of the twentieth century. But because there was one dominant risk, it all happened under the banner of nuclear war, with philosophers discussing the profound new issues raised by “nuclear ethics,” rather than by “existential risk.” And with the end of the Cold War, this risk diminished and the conversation faded. But this history shows that existential risk is capable of rousing major global concern, from the elite to the grass roots.

Toby Ord, The precipice: existential risk and the future of humanity, London, 2020, p. 73