Content from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Among the many apocalyptic scenarios that we face, war is still the most probable cause for the destruction of our planet. For more than 60 years, man has been able to manufacture nuclear bombs (and other massive weapons of destruction) but the risks involved are even greater than before as countries rule by dictators or fanatics are now in control (Iran, North Korea).

Among chief concerns about the security of nuclear weapons materials worldwide are the crisis between India and Pakistan; terrorist efforts to acquire and use nuclear and biological weapons; and the growing inequality between rich and poor around the world that increases the potential for violence and war.

Humans are very similar to other primates in their genetic propensity towards intra-species violence; Jared Diamond's The Rise and Fall of the Third Chimpanzee estimates that 64% of hunter-gather societies engage in warfare every two years. Although it has been argued (e.g. in the UNESCO Seville Statement) that warfare is a cultural artifact, many anthropologists dispute this, noting that small human tribes exhibit similar patterns of violence to chimpanzee groups, the most murderous of the primates, and our nearest genetic relatives. The 'higher' functions of reason and speech may be more evolved in the brain of Homo sapiens than his cousins, but the relative size of the limbic system is a constant in apes, monkeys and humans; as human rational faculties have expanded, so has the wetware of emotion. The combination of inventiveness and urge to violence in the human animal has been cited as evidence against its long term.