Whereas prior research emphasizes island nations as pandemic refuges, this paper uses case studies of China and Western Australia to show that other types of jurisdictions can also successfully function as pandemic refuges. Their suppression and elimination of COVID‐19 demonstrates the viability of pandemic refuges as a risk management measure. Through the first 2 years of the COVID‐19 pandemic, several political jurisdictions have achieved low spread of COVID‐19 via isolation from the rest of the world and can therefore classify as pandemic refuges. COVID‐19 is not the most extreme pandemic scenario, but it is nonetheless a very severe global event, and it therefore provides an important source of evidence. In this literature, a refuge is a place or facility designed to keep a portion of the population alive during extreme global catastrophes. This paper relates evidence from the COVID‐19 pandemic to the concept of pandemic refuges, as developed in literature on global catastrophic risk. Overall, refuges show much promise for protecting civilization against global catastrophes and thus warrant serious consideration. The high cost of extraterrestrial refuges can be offset by integrating refuges into space missions with scientific, political, or commercial goals. The rejection of waste heat from subterranean refuges can be enhanced via building piping networks and locating refuges near running groundwater or in ice. Self-sufficiency in food provision can be greatly enhanced via chemical food synthesis. We present several challenges and evaluate possible solutions. However, surface-independence introduces significant design challenges. We introduce the concept of surface-independence as the gold standard for refuge excellence: refuges isolated from Earth's surface will offer maximum protection against both the catastrophe itself and potentially harmful post-catastrophe populations. These qualities can be achieved through a variety of specific design features. The successful refuge will have a variety of qualities, including isolation from catastrophes and self-sufficiency. This paper examines the potential importance of refuges and what it would take to make them succeed. For many of these catastrophes, isolated refuges could keep some people alive and enable them to rebuild civilization in the post-catastrophe world. A variety of global catastrophes threaten the survival of human civilization.
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