One of the questions practically all people concerned with the subject have is, "What global catastrophe is going to destroy our current way of life?"
I presented a paper at the Moving Forward Conference held at Aberdeen University in July of 2010 to answer that question:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlQrYCacrKo
At the end of December 2010, I presented a follow-up at the ICBEC in Hong Kong.
http://www.worldsci.org/pdf/abstracts/abstracts_5694.pdf
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZWmXEZ6yjA
I argue that physical catastrophes such as solar flares, climate change, diseases and ET strikes will not trigger the end of Man. A mass extinction such as the one Man will soon experience is the result of a global economic collapse. The ecological pyramid overturns and we find the many chasing after the few.