When I'm not
joggling or
playing euchre, I like to think about the eventual demise of civilization. Here are the top 10 disasters that could wipe out humans forever. I found this at the
Guardian.
1.
Climate Change. You know global warming. The Earth temperature will change, cities will flood, farmlands won't produce anymore and we essentially starve to death. This won't kill everyone but a pretty good chunk of the world.
2.
Genetic degradation. Human genes slowly change overtime and some people theorize that eventually we won't be able to reproduce. That'll finish us off.
3.
Viral pandemic. This also won't kill everyone but it could wipe out a huge number of people. Don't worry, humans will recover from this. There'll just be a lot less of us.
4.
Terrorist Attack. Again, this won't kill everyone but it could wipe out a lot of us. Hopefully, this won't happen in our lifetime but you never know.
5.
Nuclear War. This used to be a big worry of mine circa 1982. But the chances of a world wide nuclear war is pretty remote. However, a battle between India and Pakistan could wipe out a billion people or so and that could really weaken humanity's chance of survival.
6.
Meteorite Impact. It killed off the dinosaurs and could do the same to us. Although, we are a bit brighter than the dinos so a good number of us will survive and continue on. But it certainly could set us back a bit.
7.
Robots kill us all. This seems highly unlikely. Technology is advancing but there is no indication that machines will rise up and kill all humans. There just doesn't seem to be much point in that.
8.
Cosmic rays cause an ice age. We could get blasted by cosmic rays from an exploding super-star and that will somehow freeze the planet. Again, lots of people will die but I think lots of us will be ok. We humans are an adaptable lot.
9.
Super Volcano kills us. Apparently, a super volcano crops up every so often and puts so much lava and soot into the atmosphere it could suffocate and kill us all. Yikes! I didn't even know about these.
10.
Destruction by black hole. The Earth could get sucked up by a black hole. Not terribly likely but space happens. If this were to happen, all people would essentially cease to exist. Of all the ones on this list, black holes are the most grave. Although, it is also the least likely.
Happy New Year everyone!