Threatcon 1: What disasters are most overhyped?

New America Foundation's Michael Lind has a provocative article on Foreign Policy's website discussing bullshit concerns that animate public policy discussions and lead to apocalypse fatigue.

I agree with Mr. Lind that the threat of nuclear terrorism is overblown (premise #1), that Europeans are not pacifists (#3), and that water-sharing is not a basis for the peace process (#8).

But I am strongly concerned about several things of which he is dismissive: pandemics (#5), environmental refugees (#7), post-peak oil price shocks (#2) and especially the shift in power away from nation-states to sub-state actors such as terrorists, corporations, and eccentric billionaires (#9).

Unfortunately I think these last four trends are as relentless as the zombiepocalypse.