What do u think the greatest potential threat for the existence of humans?

Answer 1

The greatest potential threat for the existence of humans is the existence of humans.

Answer 2

Potential threat? Pick one. I'd concentrate on the greatest ongoing threat though.

Current threat? Global warming...

Our future if we allow global warming to continue:
--Drought and reduced freshwater supplies in a world where people already aren't getting enough freshwater.
--Increased pestilence from diseases and vermin as they expand their territories due to increased temperatures.
--100 degree heatwaves becoming the norm. If you've read the newspapers recently about the 'sudden' rash of heatwaves, they will continue to get worse, longer in duration and more severe.
--Increased severity of global weather, hurricanes, tornados, floods. Hurricane Katrina, Rita and Wilma will be the norm, not the exception.
--Mass ocean marine life extinctions. Marine life is extremely sensitive to temperature changes and cannot tolerate rapid changes. Over 1 billion people in the world rely on the ocean as a food source. Even now, coral reefs which contain a majority of the ocean's biodiversity are being threatened.... bleaching has been the result.
--Rise of ocean waters. I'm not sure people are aware of the sheer magnitude of this particular problem. It's not a question of the ocean waters rising... it's happening now as we speak. About 10% of the permanent Arctic ice sheet has melted, the Antarctic ice sheet is NOT growing in response like some scientists predicted, Greenland which holds 10% of the worlds water in glaciers is melting measurably through satellite photos.

A very large percentage of humans live near water. Should sea levels rise, all those humans will have to move as every coastal city in the world is claimed by the sea. President Bush keeps worrying about the economy.... well imagine what happens to the economy when Miami, New York, San Fransico, Boston... all these cities and more are underwater. With current computer predictions, this will happen if global warming is not checked within only a few hundred years. That's less than 200 years, some forecasts are predicting massive changes within 50 which is well within our lifetime.

This isn't alarmism, it's simple reality. We have the capability of mitigating (not stopping) global warming. But if we don't start now.... well, either learn how to swim or buy some beachfront property in Kansas or something.

Answer 3

ironball and john2 are both on the right track - those are the kinds of things that are beyond our control and pose the greatest threat to humans. I wish that humans were as important in the universe as we think we are, but really we're just specks in a large galaxy and however time rolls forward, we are unwilling participants of whatever may occur, including a collision with an asteroid or global temperature change (effects of less gravity from the moon, not global warming) or just the chaos of nature. I think it is silly when people say that humans are the greatest potential threat -

Answer 4

I think that the greatest potential threat for the existence of humans is the fact that we don't care about the consequences of our actions. Our ignorance can kill us more than any natural calamity would. Now what causes Global Warming? Insufficient natural resources? Floods? If we come to think of it, all these are somehow caused by the actions of the entire human population.

Answer 5

None of the answers above will cause the entire human race to die out. There are many threats to individual people, or even millions of individuals, but to kill every last person is not so easy. War? Disease? Pollution? Asteroid impact? None of these is even close to damaging enough to kill every last person on Earth.

I suspect we, as a race, will genetically engineer ourselves so that in thousands of years there would be nobody left that we today would consider human. But even though our distant decedents may not be human by our standards, they will survive for millions of years. Even when the Sun dies and Earth is no longer habitable, they will have moved into the universe, inhabiting other planets or building space colonies, or even entire artificial planets. I realize these speculations are WAY out of the box, but just look at how much science and technology has changed in 1,000 years. Just think of the possibilities in a million years.

Answer 6

There are many potential threats for the human existance. One of them is destrying us as we speak. Its called Humanity. Thanks to technology we was achived may things, but most of these things are destryong our world, thus destroying us with it.

Wars, deadly deseases, global warming...they are all big potential threats, but since we are ont he topic of astronomy here...

There is always the risk of earth being hit by an very big asteroid, thus destroying nearly all (if not ALL) of the human population. That asteroid might be fast and powerful enough to throw us out of our orbit, just light a biliard ball. Then we would either freeze to death or be suched into the sun and die.

What about another planet being hit by an asteroid and loosign its orbit the hitting us, highly unlikely, but what if?

Answer 7

the greatest potential threat to earth would be....your mind do not focuss on the comprehension of the universe. you are not at the right places, most of the time. if you feel you are not at the right place most of the time you are a threat to earth and the universe. you should go back where you come from. it is not that easy to understand where you come from but you have to go back there. you are really at the wrong place. if you are from the lyra star system, it might take time to go back there. be patient.

Answer 8

luv is the greatest potential threat for human existence.

Answer 9

Greatest potential threat for humans is the humans itself.Then comes all the others.

Answer 10

The greatest threat to human is the impending emergence of the Anti- Christ and his new world order. So, if I were you I would run to the hills.