Doomsday List.

I will compose a list of possible ways the world can end! bewarned, it will be a long list! I will also include other cathastropies that will destroy a very large part of the world but not humanity necesarilly.

-Large Meteor strike
-Global Warming
-WW3/Nuclear War
*North Korea nukes the US
*China invades Taiwan, US intervenes
-Alien Invasion
-A mutant disease
-Super Volcano becomes active
*Yellowstone
*Mt Rainier(?)
*St Hellens (bad, but not a cathastropy)
-Super Nova near use kills all life due to radiation
-Nearby planet in the solar system explodes (Mars hit by meteor?)
-Volcano in the canaric islands errupt, rocks falling into the ocean creating a gigantic tidal wave that will destroy the entire East Coast.

I will add more if I can think of it, feel free to add to this list

We are doomed!

The natural progression of the life of the Sun.

Or does that count as "global warming?"

The end of a single persons life meaning the world will end for them through their eyes

Desertification and overpopulation can also cause a doomsday.

I think it's safe to assume, scaart, that "world" means the actual physical planet Earth.

I meant to add this earlier, but I don't think there are any stars capable of going supernova that are close enough to kill us.

A deadly virus escapes from a lab or military base....hmmm, Stephen King's "The Stand"?????

And the scariest scenario of all:


President Hillary Clinton (gasp! too horrific to ponder.)

[edit on 3-8-2005 by dave_54]

The one on your doomsday list that i am most scared of is the super volcano at yellowstone it erupts on average every 600,000 years and it has not erupted in 640,000 years. It is due like anything to erupt, i was thinking of getting a stockpile of tinned foods and bottled water, Because when this erupts it will block out the light from the sun for an awful long time and crops will not be able to grow

Terminal, global malaise!

I dont mean to kill a thread and all but here are my views on this. I am not a religous man nor an atheist. I read all types of material on these topics and the only serious answer I have come up with is that these topics can drive you crazy. Does anyone remember www.garynorth.com. This guy had me freaked out for 24 months before Y2K

Quote
I will compose a list of possible ways the world can end! bewarned, it will be a long list! I will also include other cathastropies that will destroy a very large part of the world but not humanity necesarilly.

(My views below)

-Large Meteor strike
This will happen at some point, there is no doubt about it. No chance to fix one happening "soon". Long term of course we could stop a reasonable object. A runaway star/planet/moon no way so just live out your life at that point.

-Global Warming
Too much inconclusive data at this point IMO. The planet is larger than all individual entities and is built to self regulate much like the human body. I feel this would be a centuries long event if there is any basis.

-WW3/Nuclear War
I feel the threat of the (former) superpowers going to war is slim. Rogue weapons are a good possibility in the next 10 years but all out attack would not accomplish the goals of 2005 --> world economy. The ultimate goal of war is still to conquer and if all the conquered is uninhabitable then you win nothing and any smart leader (or controlling advisors) knows that.

*North Korea nukes the US
They do not have the firepower to fully accomplish their goal and therefore would only lose their country (yes there would be huge allied loses but still not complete destruction of the west and her allies which could be the only other goal)

*China invades Taiwan, US intervenes
While there is valuable technology and personnel in Taiwan it is not worth destroying your entire country and all other available technologies. It is great for postering and shows of strength to keep all countries on their toes to "support" Taiwan but beyone that not worth ending the world.

-Alien Invasion
Will leave this open until disclosure.

-A mutant disease
I do feal this is our biggest fear and not because of a matter of terrorism. A simple mistake at any "research" facilitiy around the world could spark disaster. Not only is every government around the world unequipped to handle a nationwide or even regional epidemic , the ease of global transportation around the world would make this unstoppable in the worst case scenario.

-Super Volcano becomes active
At this point there is no proven way to predict or stop this occurance. There would be no use in "surviving" this catastrophe as the disaster would outlast all survivors.

*Yellowstone
*Mt Rainier(?)
*St Hellens (bad, but not a cathastropy)
Yellowstone is THE supervolcano in the US. The others are potential regional catastrophes. Again we cannot predict them and therefore if you are in the area when it happens you can prey, otherwise the rest of the world will be cleaining up and moving forward.

-Super Nova near use kills all life due to radiation
We wouldn't know until it was too late

-Nearby planet in the solar system explodes (Mars hit by meteor?)
We wouldn't know until it was too late

-Volcano in the canaric islands errupt, rocks falling into the ocean creating a gigantic tidal wave that will destroy the entire East Coast.

The east coast would be devastated and the global economy would be crushed. Again We wouldn't know until it was too late, we cannot predict it so there is no use worrying about it.

If you let all the potential bad things that could happen to you worry you, you willl have no time for all the good things that are probable (finding a spouse, having a child, finding the perfect fishing spot, climbing the highest mountain, what ever floats your boat). Live for the best and plan for the worst is all I can say.

Big crunch.


Although you wouldnt even see it coming???

All of the manmade things I keep thinking of I prefer not to post since I don't want to give suicidal terrorists any ideas and would feel bad if millions or billions died because of something I posted especially since we are at war with them.

I do not believe Mt. Rainier would cause destruction very far outside of Washington State so it's not in my book of world destruction possibilities. Yellowstone for that matter wouldn't cause world destruction except for it's effect on crops and the world economy. If food doesn't grow well and global temperatures fall by 15 to 20 degrees on average year round, food would be a problem. Same problem as far as a comet impact unless the comet was extremely large.

One other possible scenario I thought of I'm not sure if it's listed above is genetic warfare gone out of control. If some government lab produces and uses something they think will only kill off a certain group of people but instead kills off almost 99.99999 percent of one sex such as all men or women, that would cause global destruction.

Aids progresses and becomes an airborne virus. (I think i heard its actually possible)

I totally agree Scaart...its like "If I am not there to see it, does a tree really fall in the woods", notice I say 'I' and not 'Anyone'.

Religious Apocolypse - if you belive in it, then it's coming. If you don't, then fair enough. No need to worry, one of us is right and unless it does happen it will never affect you.

Experimenting Gone Wrong - even though the Atomic Bomb is far more destructive than anyone would ever need, you just know that more powerful creations are either in the minds or the labs of some heinous scientist somewhere. It is always possible that we will do what technological progress has been threating for the last few decades - create something we can't control, but on a bigger scale than AIDS.

MAss Food Poisoning - A possibility. As civilization advances, we use and create more and more combinations of chemicals without any knowledge of their effects on the ecosystem. Not only that, but we still have no idea what effects many of the chemicals in our everyday foods have on us in the long term. This lack of knowledge about what is going into our food and livestock makes it almost inevitable that we will eventally be faced with something worse than BSE (Mad Cow Disease), something that is found too late and is too powerful to do anything about once it's out in the public. The least likely, but always a possibility.

How about use of an antimatter bomb? Instant annihalation! The sad thing is that people are probably dumb enough to use one...

It would only take two and a half trillion tonnes of anti-matter to destroy the planet. If thats your goal then start saving all your anti-matter up today.

I actually posted on this very subject yesterday. Destroying the planet isn't near as easy as many would think. ere is the top ten ways it could be done. Hope it helps.

Top ten ways to destroy planet Earth

Wupy

Technological singularity.

The machines become smarter than us, producing even smarter machines, etc., until the intelligence gap resembles the gap between humans and bacteria. There's no way of knowing what will happen, yet if machine intelligence is possible (and I see no reason it isn't), this scenarion will likely play out within the next few generations.

As orion stated, neither Ranier or St Helens are large enough to cause a catastrophic eruption, at least not based on previous eruptions. Most of the eruption models I've seen for a Rainier worst case scenario would pretty much level the Seattle, Tacoma, and Olympia areas through mudslides--in fact, much of the Puget Sound region is built on mudslides from past eruptions.

St Helens really isn't much of a threat to the global population either, and I'd say even the region doesn't have to worry too much. I live about 150 miles away from it as the bird flies; in the 1980 eruption I would've been lucky to get an inch of ash. Granted, the landslide notwithstanding the 80 eruption was comparatively small by volcanic standards, but it would have to be an exceptionally large eruption to have any reasonable effect on anything but wildlife and really close towns.

Of course, this is all based on the ideas that past eruptions can model future eruptions. St Helens could blow tomorrow without warning and with a bigger eruption than all the past ones, and put all of our knowledge of volcanic/geological processes back on the drawing boards. Hasn't happened; doesn't mean it won't.

Particle Accelerator Disaster: This can make a stranglet or mini-black hole. That, I'd say would be the worst (best?) one.

[edit on 8-8-2005 by invader_chris]