Mass famine or some sort of ecounter other life forms will defienatley have a catastrophic effect on humanity.
I've even heard complete bullpoo about Nibiru and 2012. If anyone actually believes that stuff, then they are mentally handicapped.
I do also think that we are at the earliest stages of evolution even though we may believe we arent. Back in the medieval ages, if you had tried to explain the internet to the smartest man on the planet, they would have thought you are crazy. With that in mind, try to comprihend then that even though we think space colonies are obsured, the fact of thematter is we will discover something beyond our current imagination.
Hear me out, if mankind discovers the workings of atoms, or the smallest material in the universe, we then could literally make anything out 'thin air'. That is what I beleive will happen.
As for a catastrophy, world wide famine seems the only possible explanation, since overpopulation is inevitable. That and revolution. Sooner or later, we'll realise money is the creation of evil, rather then religion. At the end of the day, everything revolves around money and so much corruption happens because of money. Maybe one day people will revolt and freely own the world, rather then 'countries' and 'governments' and we'd have a resource based society rather then monetarian.