What is the most probable threat to the survival of the human species on Earth?

Question

I'm looking for a poll-like result, to get an idea what others feel might be lurking out there. Some answers that come to mind are...
A) Nuclear catastrophe
B) Greenhouse effect running out of control
C) Comet striking the earth
D) Eventual (say a couple million-million years away) degradation of the sun's ability to "power us up"

Don't answer A thru D if you have a different response.

I'm just curious what others think.

Answer 1

Relativistic bombardment by an extraterrestrial civilization. Read
The Killing Star
by Charles Pellegrino
to find out how this might happen, and why an extraterrestrial civilization would want to destroy its neighbors.

Answer 2

All are possibilites.

It is not as likely that we will kill off the planet with a nuclear catastrophe. However, we are very much likely (unfortunately) to witness a nuclear attack of some sort due to terrorism in our life time. I don't think their will be a nuclear war because with terrorism, there is not central group or government to return an attach against regarding large area destruction.

The greenhouse effect is going to cause major consequences in our not to distant future. However, we as human tend to react when it becomes an absolute necessity so this will be eventually looked. We are making strides now and I think with the newer generations it will be given much needed attention.

A comet or meteor striking the earth is sure to happen. It may be years, but it will happen. It already has so there is no reason to think it won't again.

The sun will eventually burn out. It is said that it will be many, many years, but who knows. I would not worry about this.

My main concern is the earth itself. Earth has and is continuely changing everyday. Continental drift is not just something we read about in school. It continues to happen today. This means earthquakes and tidal waves. Man, however, has and will manage to survive these. The maga volcano could possibly destroy a vast area, but not likely the entire planet. For instance, Yellowstone National Park is an active volcano that when it errupts could leave a large area destruction and an ash cloud that could wipe out the entire Northern Hemisphere. Along with a meteor collision, these are possiblity out biggest threats.

Answer 3

a nuclear catastrophe could happen the quickest but I'm not sure how likely it would be that the entire planet would be destroyed...but then again, we have some crazy-*** people out there who really like to nuke us, that's for sure. And they don't care if they die because of their crazy-*** religion. Global warming WILL kill us all if we don't start doing something about it NOW. It may already be too late. We are heading towards a time when we are all going to die in our own filth!!! And there are ways to stop this from happening but the human race is not willing, at least not so far, to do anything about it. Come on people...are we REALLY going to just wreck the whole planet??? It just happens to be the only one we currently have.

Answer 4

Habitat degradation by human activity reducing biodiversity across the globe, and human environmental degradation increasing desertification, using up groundwater reserves and polluting freshwater sources.

Combined with any kind of climate change (anthropogenic or not), this may well lead to crop failures, epidemic diseases, unusable landscapes, famine and societal collapse.

Warfare over limited remaining resources will compound the problems, and may well lead to the extinction of mankind, taking much of the planet's other species with them.

Unfortunately, I can see this as a very real threat, not just to man, but the environment as well.

Answer 5

I agree with cheme54b's answer, we're our own worst enemies. However, few natural catastrophes have the potential to completely wipe out mankind, there will always be some survivors that can repopulate the Earth. So, a gamma ray burst from a nearby supernova should do it, that will kill all life on earth and it'll have to start all over again with bacteria.

Answer 6

Religion. As long as various religions are having a contest to see which one can out-breed the others and as long as religion stands in the way of the hard choices we will have to make to slow down the earth polluting numbers of us who are turning our planet into a life threatening cesspool, we will not survive.

Answer 7

Human beings are the biggest threat to the planet.

Answer 8

Population----- I have sean some graphs that project that it may happen at about 10 billion. We juist passed 6 billion.

Answer 9

The human species.

Answer 10

B