What is the most likely thing that could happen and destroy our entire planet in the near future?

Question

Be it natural disaster, enivromental degradation caused by mankind, space invasion?

Answer 1

most likely an impact from an asteroid or comet, a massive solar storm or a gamma ray burst (caused by massive stars going supernova and their gamma radiation 'ejecta' aimed right at us, which would instantly zap our ozone layer into oblivion). or a stray blackhole could get caught in our gravity well and turn the earth into swiss cheese as it ping-pongs back and forth through the planet.

Answer 2

Yeah it makes sense. Over packaging is a big complaint of mine, and I have a few friends that have the same gripe. But still even if it were the 1960s (and I remember that decade well) we would have more waste. Back then we didn't recycle a thing. The millions of trees that went into the paper bags for groceries? Holy pulp Batman! Those things were just thrown away along with the plastics and rubber from every where. The newspapers ended in the dumps, the magazines and the boxes the everything came in went straight to the dump or burned in the back yard. The only thing recycled were the pop bottles and the beer bottles. You got two cents each for them. Today at least we are reusing the glass, the paper, the plastics and even copper, aluminium, iron, steel, all of these; any individual can make money off of. Still; the over packaging is horrendous! Things have changed for the better but you're still right about the horse. It's bolted out the barn door back in the mid 1940s and we ain't ever going to get that old mare back in the stall.

Answer 3

Well to be honest with you that's hard to tell, granted our earth is falling apart from what some call Global Warming which many people believe man is responsible for, but then again some would say natural disaster stating that what happened to New Orleans and the recent earthquakes off the coast of Japan causing possible Tsunamis and as for Space Invasion well that's another "what if" subject, considering there is no proof fact that there is or is not Alien life forms out there. What it comes down to is what you strongly believe in.

Answer 4

In addition to the Yellowstone potential for disaster (which is very real), the Global Warming phemonema will eventually eliminate mankind, but not the planet. The planet will continue for millions of years, but definitely not in it's current state.

Global Warming is now a proven occurrence. A fact. Ice cores taken in the Antartic have been analyzed and without a doubt iwe are now entering the phase of global warming. Mankind has no control over it. Warming and cooling of the earth has been going on for millions of years. And, while pollution is contributng to the present negative state of the planet, overall, global warming will finally do us in. We must look at the entire picture of evolution of the earth, rather than in the past few thousand years. (Global warming will be a slow process, so we will be around for quite some time.

Answer 5

The most likely thing that could happen is an eruption of a supervolcano, such as yellowstone. In recent years, they have been tracking ground deformation, wich is caused by a buildup of magma and gases.
This event, if large enough, could destroy all life on the planet, and is more likely to happen in the short term then a meteor impact.

Answer 6

Almost nothing could happen that would truly destroy the planet, especially in the short term.

However, the biosphere could be destroyed, or damaged to the point where it would not support human life.

The fastest route to this would be an accidentally-triggered nuclear war, which has almost happened dozens of times already in the last 50 years.

Answer 7

aside from the obvious, a bunch of religious disfunctionals with some nuclear weapons..An 'impactor' from space is possible, 65 million years ago this happened in the gulf of Mexico, when an object, probably a small asteroid about 10 kilometres across impacted the earth and caused massive detritus to be thrown up, and set most of America, north and south on fire!..It also caused the demise of most of the mega fauna as well!..But, the most likely cause of destruction will be human induced climate change!
The increases of co2 and other 'greenhouse gases' will cause increases in things like acid rains, world wide droughts, massive floods, destructive weather patterns, The polar icecaps will melt, as is happening now, and sea levels will change, low lying country's will disappear, coast lines will change and there will be less habitable living space, there will be huge tidal effects that will flood entire cities along coastlines and they will vanish as well!..Storm patterns will be less predictable and vastly more destructive, we are seeing the evidence of this now!..Human climate change will be , i think the ultimate destroyer!

Answer 8

Well I would like to divide such giant catastrophes into two:

(1) from within the earth - Like formation of new mega fracture systems that would generate massive earthquakes, folding, faulting rocks, regional subsidence and uplifts and formation of new oceans/sea etc. Geodynamic mega events repeating, we have signatures of such giant events as fold/faults imprinted on rocks throughout the globe. Such destruction is beyond human comprehension. The Tertiary (new) folded mountain belts (Alps, Himalaya, Andes etc.) and the older Precambrian mountain belts (Aravali in India). Visualise the force required to bend or break tens of km thick and long pile of rocks into giant wave like pattern. Imagine large segments of earth buckling down or up, land becoming sea and sea floor uplifting to form new land surface.

(2)From extra Terrestrial space - (a) it can be a giant meteorite impact piercing right into the upper mantle ripping apart earth into fragments.
(b) Changes in the inter-planetary orbits causing major changes in the gravity of earth and other planetary bodies.
(c) Changes in the earth’s atmosphere allowing massive cosmic ray invasion (all kinds Infra-red, ultra-violet inclusive).
(d) Giant solar flares entering earth’s atmosphere
(e) attendant genetic mutation (due to radiation) and formation of new life forms may be microbes or a ‘Frankenstein’ like monster. Now such a thing would only destroy the present kind of life forms keeping the physical planet intact.

Earth being a unique planet hence the biosphere should not be excluded from earth.
thnks

Answer 9

Asteriods - global killer. Because we do not have a Star Trek USS Enterprise NCC 1701E to protect us! Helm bring about, maxi warp 9! Aye Sir. Forget it about the nuclear missile bombardment cos making more worse like a multi-warhead hit on earth..more disasterious....

Oil, natural gas, timbering, mining and foods - human made.

Space invasion? cool....let get some if we can hehe...but don't think lah....:)

Answer 10

I suppose if a black hole where to swing by that might destroy our planet. Things that might kill off most humans include impacts by meteors, nuclear wars, and genetic bio wars. If Yellowstone (volcano) goes off, that might be more catastrophic than most people realize and might kill billions. It may very well go off anytime in the next few thousand years.