If an asteroid hit Earth tomorrow, we humans would be getting what we deserve?

Question

Looking at the direction our world is going in....I'd have to say that if an asteroid hit Earth tomorrow, we humans would be getting what we deserve. Agree or disagree?

wm_omnibus, I NEVER said our ancestors deserved it, I said WE (meaning modern day humans) deserved it. A volcanic eruption is VERY different from an asteroid collision. Show me where we humans survived a catastrophic asteroid collision and I'll shut up.

Answer 1

Disagree. No one desreves nothing

Answer 2

No, NASA has not predicted an asteroid shower. There may be some small meteors heading our way tomorrow but they would burn up and cause a spectacular sight in the night. There will however be an asteroid strike in 2800, or so predicted if that asteroid heading towards the Earth in the future is not destroyed. However 2800 is centuries away; we are in 2012 and the world is not going to end this year.

Answer 3

Disagree. The "direction of the world" bears not a whit on the survival of an lamed antelope, or the life of a kitten in a house fire, or the fortune of the human species.

And history bears me out.

There is strong evidence that the human species already survived an asteroid-scale catastrophe, some seventy-five thousand years ago - only it wasn't an asteroid.

It was the biggest volcanic eruption on planet Earth in the past three million years, and some folks argue it damn near wiped us out.

Check out the super-volcano "Toba," on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia. (1.) When this sucker blew up 75 thousand or so years ago, it pushed enough ash into the atmosphere to plunge East Africa (and very likely the rest of the planet) into nuclear-winter conditions.

There we were in East Africa, minding our own hominid business, getting along just fine as we had for hundreds of thousands of years beforehand, no hint of civilization-building tendencies here, no sir, just "easy scavenger living."

"Hey, that lion just left the kill! Let's run off those hyenas and chow down - "

BLAMMO.

Genetic studies indicate that right around the Toba eruption, the population of the human species was down to around 5,000 to 10,000 individuals. That's right near the extinction mark, BTW, and we had the bad luck of being right in the middle of the worst-hit latitudes on the planet.

Mama Earth came very close to killing us already... and it's interesting that the spread of the human species from Africa to the rest of the planet seems to have occured over the last sixty thousand years or so. (2.)

Maybe our forbears figured it was best not to "have all of one's eggs in one basket?" Because our East African ancestors did colonize the rest of the planet, any thing that was big enough to wipe out our species would have to be a true monster of a disaster.

In any event, the evidence for this scenario can't be dismissed out of hand. See this site, for example. (3.)

So I must disagree with you. I think it is actually kind of arrogant of us, this premise that if we were to go extinct, that this would be somehow fitting.

Notice how close that sentiment is to an attitude of indifferent exploitation of environmental resources. In both cases, the only thing considered important is what we do, and what we are.

The only thing important about the Toba eruption was the two thousand eight hundred cubic kilometers of ash that monster blew into the atmosphere. (1.)

I'll listen further if you can dig up some evidence to show that your ancestors and mine "deserved" being buried in that ash.

UPDATE:
P. Panther - I need more explanation re: your qualification.

1. "Asteroid vs. supervolcano" - globally, their differences are less than the similarity of their effects. And yet...

2. Why would it matter if this "deserved" calamity came via asteroid, or volcano, or a plague of newts?

3. BTW I'm sorry, but saying that you didn't mean to include our ancestors in your question doesn't work. Your question was not that specific.

...and why do you want me present evidence of a killer asteroid impact in our history - since you've implied that whatever befell our ancestors can have no bearing on our fate?

Answer 4

The better question would be: "If the earth was hit by an asteroid tomorrow, where would you spend eternity?"

Me? I'm fine with an asteroid arriving tomorrow.

Answer 5

We know that there are future potenital asteroids to hit us.
We have the technology or at least the capability to be the first ever civilization (of whatever has ever been here) to actually avoid such.

Besides nobody deserves extinction.
Though I would support extinction of islamic terrorism.

Answer 6

I don't think we go around throwing asteroids at anyone else. Why do we deserve a rock in the face?

Answer 7

Every day a few asteroids hit earth, they are just too small to make much difference.
I certainly don't want all life on earth to end, because one species made a mess of this planet. let this species vanish and some other species take responsibility one day.

Answer 8

We're already getting what we deserve--each other.

But an asteroid strike would mean that Somebody Big Up There got tired of us all, and tried something new.

Answer 9

I'm prepared to accept my portion of humankind's responsibility and if what I deserve is the earth wiped out by an asteroid, then so be it.

Answer 10

Logically and ironically yes. Instead of funding sciences that could be helping us figure out how to avoid such catastrophy (colonizing other planets... nudging the asteroid...) we are wasting it killing each other in wars.

466 billion dollars for the military
25 billion dollars for science and technology

Answer 11

the humans that destroy the planet and cause corruption and destruction, spreading hatred and lies among us, would be getting what they deserve. everyone else would be getting the inevitable; there are billions of asteroids out there, its only a matter of time before another huge one smashes into us.