Political threats, environmental threats, threats of the gods, economic threats, threats to peace, threats to personal health and general well being of all kinds. While there are certainly some conditions we could imagine to be more beneficial to our lives the facts are that Consciousness still exists and we can still imagine a brighter future. Now, I'm not saying that many have not suffered or died. I am saying that not everyone died and that in general most have less to suffer today then ever before. The quality and length of a life span for us humans is nearly twice what it was just 10,000 years ago.
Evolution continues, it continues to change and it continues to get better as it goes.
Let's look at some of the really bad things that have happened over the last few Billion years or so to get some perspective. It has been discovered that the 5th light of any stage is a breakthrough period and that the 5th night of each Creation cycle has been a time of major disasters. 6 or so billion years ago Earth was a molten ball of sheathing material with noxious gasses for an atmosphere. Mother Earth, an infant girl at the time, was happily puking and pooping magma all over herself. This would have been something like Mother Earth's coming out party.