What could most likely wipe out the entire human race?

Question

Viruses, floods caused by massive deforestation, space collisions: what do you think would most likely wipe us out of the universe?

Answer 1

George W. Bush ;-)

Answer 2

You should ask this question to a Statistics person, in the Math section. This question is all about statistics.

Extinction level asteroids only hit the Earth every 100,000 years. Even then, we would probably see that asteroid coming, for example: Apophis is a likely candidate and we know of it's location and behavior already: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apophis_asteroid

Floods are only region specific, and even if ALL the ice caps melted, they wouldn't cover all the continents (Dry land is NOT a myth... I've seen it - Waterworld).

Massive deforestation is a gradual process, and if it gets worse, then things will change dramatically. I sure hope it doesn't get to the point where we are all running around with O2 tanks.

Pandemic level viruses http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandemic#Concern_about_possible_future_pandemics
are very hard to contain, and the viruses themselves seem to be getting worse. I don't know enough about viruses to say whether they would wipe us all out, but it seems like the most likely world killer, statistically speaking, since we have more of them, but I'm sure there is always a rouge asteroid...

Answer 3

Most of the things being talked about would only devistate the population, but be pretty unlikely to actually kill us all.

The only thing that would really have a good chance of doing that is a major colission, and it would have to be a pretty big one.

It's pretty arrogant to say that we could end all life on earth. I'm not even sure we're capable of terminating our own existance from this planet. Even if we dropped every bomb, the planet would keep going with or without us.


But let's look at some problems with some of the methods mentioned.

Viruses? They have to be transmitted to work. Once enough people are dead, further spread of the viruses become impossible. Those handfulls of uninfected repopulate.

Global Warming? Humanity has already survived ice ages with little more than our wits and animal furs.

Floods? What, everywhere at once? That's a question for the theologists.

The Bomb? Large parts of the world are likely not to be nuked or really be much effected, besides a level of background radiation that would kill a lot of people, but I think some would develop resistance. Nature's smart like that.

That *could* kill us all, but honestly.. we'd have to keep launching after it's obvious there's no further reason to.

Answer 4

The most probable thing would be a meteorite impact. However, other things such as a gamma ray burst from a star could do the trick more effectively. Gamma ray burst are the universe's sterilisation tool. There is also a very tiny risk that some experiment in a particle accelerator could cause the universe to change phase but that is extremely unlikely. One would have expected an alien species to have done this already if it could be done.

Answer 5

Well when the sun reaches the end of its life it will expand and incinerate our planet, but I'm sure the human race would be long gone before that. Nuclear war would wipe out a lot of our race, as would floods but I don't think they would make us, on their own at least, extinct. I'd say evolution would wipe out the human race as we would transform into some more advanced being. Either that or we get wiped out by a Death Star or something :-)

Answer 6

Indifference to the human condition. Without empathy, compassion and the ability to put forth a true effort to make the world a better place, we're screwed! We've seen it New Orleans, it happens every day in developing nations and right in you're own backyard. It is the topic explored by musicians, artists, actors, writers, some politicians, clergy, aid organizations, the list goes on. Indifference is the thing that allows people to be ignored by government, passed over by others, not considered in lawmaking processes, warehoused within a weak governing system, or simply left to die. I believe that the human race has the ability to wipe itself out. The planet could continue on without it's inhabitants, and possibly heal the damage inflicted on it by humans ( Greenhouse effect, pollution, deforestation, etc.).

Answer 7

Super volcanoes, and the one under yellow stone park is just about ready to pop its clogs, it has a 600,000 yr eruption cycle, and the last one happened 640,000yrs ago so its overdue, the last supervolcano eruption happened 74,000 thousand yrs ago in Sumatra, and geneticists have determined by the existing gene pool that nearly the entire human race was wiped out leaving a mere few thousand people, the explosion itself was 10,000 times bigger than mt st Helena, a similar eruption would be heard around the world and plunge the planet into a nuclear winter.

Answer 8

First, many prior answers have some merit...Nucleur holocaust, viral weaponry, profit-mongering drug manufacturers who kill millions of customers and go, "Oops!"...
We should never underestimate the awesome power of stupid people in large groups.

The question however is actually a Catch-22 exercise, because you're not asking for facts but theories, and because the question is based on negative consequences, the theories will be based on suspicions, fears, and even hostilities.

Humans can't accurately predict their own future extinction without actually travelling to the future to view it, and being impossible, the true answer is not available.

The collected answers would make a fine theme paper for Psych class, and the answers may vary even more under another category.

Personally, I believe that the most likely source of extinction will be Earthlings themselves, as opposed to some ultra-rare event originating in another part of the galaxy...Again, Never under-estimate the destructive power of Stupid people in large groups.

Answer 9

except the flux of gamma rays is sufficient and hits from all guidelines on the comparable time, it won't kill off the human race "directly". whether an somewhat close famous individual have been to bypass supernova whilst the famous individual's pole is grew to become precisely in direction of us, the individuals on the different element of Earth could be secure with the help of the thickness of Earth -- till the rotation introduced them to the "bake" section. yet there at the instant are not any suitable stars close sufficient. At terrific, there could be some stars that ought to emit sufficient gamma rays to disrupt our ecosystem and do unusual issues to it as an occasion, turn it opaque so as that photograph voltaic can no longer attain the floor = not extra flora = not extra food (animals choose vegetation to offer the beef we consume). we would ultimately die, yet no longer directly (we would die of world starvation). --- all of us know that the sunlight can't explode (too small to blow up) A collision might might desire to be with an merchandise the dimensions of Vesta (look it up). There at the instant are not this variety of products on an orbit coming everywhere on the edge of Earth. no longer now, no longer for thousands and thousands of years. (And interior a million years, Earth will no longer be suitable for people which includes us)

Answer 10

I think it'll be environmental. We'll cut down too many trees, change the composition of the atmosphere, speed up melting of the ice caps, create freak weather -- it won't just be one thing. It's all gonna snowball. Global warming will flood cities and melt ice caps and kill plants that we eat to survive; pollution will spoil or extinct species of plant and animal, buggering up the food chain and creating an environment that won't be able to sustain the world's population. Dwindling resources will lead to ridiculous wars over distribution of crops, oil and food supplies.

Then, a comet will hurtle to earth, stop in orbit, and some massively powerful being will come out and say "as you can see, sentient beings with such an insular, "me-first" mindset will ultimately exploit and ruin any environment where they live" and Zarblax Broodle will win his seventh grade science project about free will, individualism, and resource management.

Answer 11

Whatever it is I think humans will be to blame in some way.

We might be to blame for not having enough of a space programme (i.e. an asteroid hits us) or for still having religion (holy war turns nuclear) or for still using CO2 emitting power sources (if global warming is what does us in) when we can split Uranium instead or something else entirely (and there are a lot of other things we can cause or at least not prevent despite having the technology to do so).