what do people predict will cause the destruction of earth?

Answer 1

Cascade resonance failure at the Lambda complex.

Then all the aliens will start teleporting in and we'll be doomed.

Gordon Freeman to the rescue!

Answer 2

It seems like the most popular answer is "mankind," but mankind isn't likely to destroy the earth. At least not without putting some real effort into it. We certainly have the power to make it uninhabitable; but even if we do this, the earth will continue to orbit the sun without us.

If you're talking about the real, absolute, destruction of the earth, there are several ways this could happen. But if you just sit back and wait 5 billion years, our sun's life cycle will destroy the earth. It will become a red giant and expand well beyond the earth's orbit, totally destroying the planet.

Answer 3

The earth will survive till the sun goes nova.

But as for human civilisation, it will probably end with the exhaustion of the earth's resources. There is a limited quanitity of oil, metals and minerals that can be dug out of the earth -- already we are straining the limits.

Without these, agriculture and industry will collapse, followed by mass starvation, and global wars follow in the wake over the what remains of the earth's wealth.

The remains of humanity will descend into another dark age of barbarity, but this time with no recovery -- for the exhausted planet would never again be able to support a high-tech civilisation.

Answer 4

Well, people predict all kinds of things (fire, water, humans, my cat, etc) depending on their believes and scientific knowledge.
No one really knows.
But if we don't do it in the next couple hundred years with some really high energy weapon then most likely the Earth will be gobbled up by the sun when it becomes a red giant in a few billion years. Of course, we (humans) wont care about that as we will be evolved far from our limited, destructive yet wonderfully intuitive humanity of today.

Answer 5

Happy1 and Jason J have pretty much phrased it the way I would have. When people think of the end of the world, they think of nuclear wars, cosmic collision (asteriods, comets, etc), plague and such. But that's just the end of mankind. We may wipe ourselves of the face of the planet, but this planet is going to continue to survive for millenia to come.

I was watching a movie a while ago (Can't remember the name -- may have been the Core??) about a discussion very similar to this. One guy said something about the end of the world and how it may come about, or something like that and another guy (a scientist?) responded by saying he was giving too much credit to mankind. Sure we can detonate every bomb in the world at the same time or release a killer virus on society, etc., but the earth will survive that. It may be uninhabitable for millenia, but somewhere there is going to be a shred of life (bacteria) that holds on and hibernates and after a long while, everything will start over again.

Answer 6

In the 60's there was a film called 'Here We Go Roung the Mulberry Bush' It was a rude romp. However there was a very telling line "The world will not end with a bang but a Wimpy!"

Well a Wimpy was a cheep and not very good burger. And if by the phrase 'World will end' you mean the existence of humans, then the answer is there.

the production of unnecessary and wistful products will use up the worlds resources and cause global warming thus killing off human kind. and there is nothing more wasteful then tasteless junk burgers

Answer 7

I believe the fact that 2.5 billion honeybees have mysteriously disappeared (and the number of honeybees has been steadily declining the past 50 years), the fact that the last 15 years have contained the 14 hottest years on record, the fact that the polar ice caps are melting,leads me to believe our human shortsightedness will cause the destruction of the earth.

Answer 8

Sun going super nova. Technically asteroids have hit earth and killed 90% of life on the planet but Earth itself has survived. So logically the only thing that might would be maybe a super nova if we were sucked into the sun as it begins the process of collapsing. Another planet could hit Earth and destroy it but it would still take the collapse of the sun.

Humankind can't destroy the planet just everything on the planet.

Answer 9

Since i'm a Buddhist, I believe that the world will not end but that the current Buddha will fade away and in time so will his teachings,
but a new Buddha will rise by the name of Maitreya and because of the coming of the second Buddha many things will take place including an end to death, warfare, famine, and disease, this will allow the creation of a new world.

Answer 10

Fire / heat / intense energy - pretty universal for most scientists and theologians. (not global warming - but something far more intense like our sun becoming a supernova.)

The destruction of the earth is not contingent on mankind being destroyed. The earth and life on it can survive pretty much whatever we put on it - even massive nuclear winter.

Answer 11

According to the Bible,fire will cause the end of the world"And men's flesh will be stripped from their bones" This will be in the Middle East.The place will be Armageddon,and is predicted in Revelations.