Dr. Constantin Arnscheidt is a Research Associate at the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk at the University of Cambridge, where he studies the systemic contributions to global catastrophic risk (GCR). GCR scholarship has often focused on the risk posed by individual large hazards, such as climate change, nuclear war, pandemics, and AI. Yet the global risk landscape is increasingly complex and interconnected, and different drivers of risks and vulnerabilities may interact in complicated ways to create catastrophic outcomes. How should this inform our assessment of GCR, and our attempts to mitigate it?
Beyond this broader work, one specific area of focus is on worst-case outcomes from climate change. While climate change will not make Earth uninhabitable for humans, it could still be a major driver of catastrophic outcomes for humanity, such as global societal collapse. How can we understand the possible pathways to these outcomes? And indeed, what methods should we be using to study them? How useful are the conventional (e.g. economic) frameworks for climate impact assessment when considering worst-case outcomes?
An interdisciplinary scholar, Constantin has backgrounds in Earth science (climate/ecology), applied mathematics, complex systems science, and physics, with degrees from Harvard and MIT.