But new University of Otago research shows New Zealanders think they are very real threats, and 66% of us believe the government should be developing specific plans to deal with these catastrophic risks.
Public health senior researcher Prof Nick Wilson said more than 1000 New Zealanders were surveyed to see how they viewed the government’s responsibility for dealing with extreme risks.
Across the political spectrum, the majority of those surveyed wanted the government to take a leadership role in planning for such serious risks, and 60% were also in favour of the government setting up a dedicated commission or agency to monitor and report on extreme risks to the country.
Those risks included threats posed by bioweapons, nuclear war or rogue artificial intelligence.
Prof Wilson said New Zealand was relatively well-placed geographically to "weather out" those threats, but it was still poorly equipped to cope with global shocks like that.
He said the country needed to go beyond the hazards it presently plans for, such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and severe space weather to address all major catastrophic risks.
"New Zealand’s reliance on imported fuels to power the agricultural machinery used to produce food is one example where the country is vulnerable, despite its current ability to produce enough food to feed everyone.
"There are significant gaps in our national planning for high-impact risks, making the contrast between strong public support for planning and the government’s limited preparedness, quite striking."
He said while the probability of any one catastrophic event was low in a given year, the potential consequences were so severe that preventive efforts and proactive planning were essential.
He believed the government should develop a national strategy for global catastrophic risks, building on the National Risk Framework, but extending it to worst-case scenarios.
"We also need a dedicated agency or commission, either domestic or in partnership with Australia, to monitor, assess and co-ordinate responses to risks, and we need to invest in resilience measures, such as energy security, to ensure we can continue to produce enough food."
Prof Wilson said New Zealand’s geographic location made it one of the countries most likely to be able to survive global catastrophes, but that survival advantage would only matter if the country invested in resilience and governance structures in advance.
"Public opinion is clear — most citizens want the government to prepare for the unimaginable, before it is too late."
