Global climate change is one of the most severe global environmental consequences of industrialization.
Around 6200 B.C., a severe global cold snap — red ink — produced aridity in the Near East.
The International Monetary Fund says Brexit would cause a stock-market crash and "severe global damage".
It is easier to establish that there was severe global cooling than that there was total ice-cover, for example.
The others, cited in a note to clients, are: a severe global credit squeeze stemming from the crisis in the euro zone; social upheaval in China and India; and a severe global recession emanating from Europe.
Nothing that has happened this week will prevent a severe global recession, with the UK - heavily dependent on housing and finance - one of the main casualties.
Donald Trump's election is a vindication of prejudice as a national foundation and a signal of severe global instability to come.
Kobi Alexander, the company's chairman and chief executive, said: "The severe global telecommunications capital spending slowdown persists, with no clear indications of stability or improvement.
Standard Chartered said it "has a strong and liquid balance sheet and the results of the stress test demonstrate its resilience to a severe global stress scenario".
If history teaches one thing, it is that when a severe global financial panic sets in, it can easily bend and warp and metastasize.
Attempting to manage the fallout from the most severe global financial crisis since the 1930s is proving a stern test for policymakers across the world.
