There’s a hypothesis that says that intelligent life destroys itself. A species capable of making an atom bomb or a bioweapon could wipe itself out (Cooper), and even if war is taken out of the picture, climate change could kill them too. Maybe humanity is doomed. After all, we refuse to switch to cleaner energies despite overwhelming scientific evidence that fossil fuels are leading to global warming, acidification of the oceans, frequent and destructive storms, and forest fires (Frank). Maybe other alien species have faced the same dilemma that we’re facing now, and they chose poorly.
Similar to the Rare Earth Hypothesis, this concept lends itself well to environmentally-themed stories. It also lends itself well to anti-war messages or cold war allegories.
Citations:
Cooper, J. “Bioterrorism and the Fermi Paradox.” International Journal of Astrobiology, vol. 12, no. 2, 2013, pp. 144–148. okla-am.com, doi:10.1017/S1473550412000511.
Frank, Adam. “Opinion | Is a Climate Disaster Inevitable?” The New York Times, 21 Dec. 2017. NYTimes.com, https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/18/opinion/sunday/is-a-climate-disaster-inevitable.html.
Fermi's Paradoxical Prompts 