Would there be a way to COMPLETELY wipe out all life on earth?

how could we destroy all life on earth? even after a huge asteroid hits, there will still be some microorganisms that will survive and start life all over again after billions of years. and even if the mircoorganisms were killed, there would still be organic molecules, which was how life originally started. any ideas?

Fire.

even the simplest organism couldn't survive extreme temperatures for an extended period of time (years and years, not just months)

Even if nothing happens, the Earth's orbit is slowly growing closer and closer to the Sun. Plus, no star lasts forever. So either the Earth gets so hot no life is possible or the Sun collapses. It's not an "if"... it will happen.

If I thought of a way, I certainly wouldn't post the info in a public place. Just wait a few billion years, the sun will boil the oceans and eventually engulf the planet as it enlarges into a much larger star encompassing Earth's orbit.

is there a way that humans can do this? besides depleting the ozone, which might destroy all life but make it so that it can adapt maybe, what other, more faster ways are there?

I think the real question is why are you so eager to find out?

Originally posted by silQ
is there a way that humans can do this? besides depleting the ozone, which might destroy all life but make it so that it can adapt maybe, what other, more faster ways are there?

If I said mixing a single drop of copper napthenate in any ocean (which may be produced by boiling lead based paint off to a solid then rehydrating with vinegar), then what would ya do? Hmmm, Lex Luther?

Eject a haze of aerosols into the atmosphere, the resulting albedo effect would be able to reduce solar radiation and could even stop photosynthesis. Would be pretty easy to do, though not very economically feasable.

I can think of a million ways. You could fertilize methanogenic bacteria to create a haze over the earth. Also fertilize the ocean with a chemical that would destroy photoplankton and limit the oceans bilogical pump. The list goes on.

Originally posted by Bobbo
I think the real question is why are you so eager to find out?

i dont know.....maybe a fail safe just in case something really really really really bad happens to the planet and we just wanna end it all so that nothing would have to suffer. think of it as if u were in that movie "Dawn of the Dead" and you were surrounded by those zombies with a gun and it had one bullet. would u shoot a zombie and let the rest eat u? hell no! i'd end it right there!

and getting back on topic here... all of those ideas are great except the fact that life could adapt to those chemical assaults? hell, bacteria can hold up against anything! and even if they do die, how do we know that life wont start all over with just a single biomolecule. that's how we all started out.

[Edited on 12-4-2004 by silQ]

FYI, I believe astronomers discovered organic molecules in space so eventually these would fall back upon the Earth and possibly start the process all over again. That is if the Earth wasn't too hostile for life after a few million years.

Originally posted by RANT
Even if nothing happens, the Earth's orbit is slowly growing closer and closer to the Sun. Plus, no star lasts forever. So either the Earth gets so hot no life is possible or the Sun collapses. It's not an "if"... it will happen.

the earth is moving AWAY from the earth, actually. and when the sun collapses, it first has to expand. when it does that it'll more than likely swallow the earth.

If you really wanted all humans to die, you could just start WWIII and have everyone launch all their nuclear missles. The radiation and nuclear winter would likely kill everyone after they run out of food underground. I'm not going to give any easier methods out. I don't want some suicidal nutcase or group that may read this go and try something.

[Edited on 12-4-2004 by orionthehunter]

Im pretty sure a single Trident SSBN submarine could do some serious irreversable damage.

Originally posted by RANT
If I said mixing a single drop of copper napthenate in any ocean (which may be produced by boiling lead based paint off to a solid then rehydrating with vinegar), then what would ya do? Hmmm, Lex Luther?

I looked up copper napthenate and it is some kind of wood preservative. What is this stuff? How can a single drop of this stuff wipe off all living organisms from the planet? Just curious.

My guess would be to somehow strip the atmosphere... and if you do find a way let me know... i'll help ya out...

Oops I forgot, cockroaches will survive the radiation unless they are directly on ground zero, then it wouldn't matter anyway for them. I believe I read that a cockroach can absorb 100,000 times the radiation of a human. I bet the nuclear winter would get them though.

Originally posted by specialasianX
My guess would be to somehow strip the atmosphere... and if you do find a way let me know... i'll help ya out...

AWWWW YEA!!!! WOOHOO!!! MY ARMY OF DEATH WARRIORS IS INCREASING!!!! MUAHAHAHAHAHA!!!.... sry. getting back on the topic, i said ALL LIFE. not just human. I'm talking about obliterating life down to the biomolecules that make up life itself so that nothing can start up again using scratch.

[Edited on 12-4-2004 by silQ]

Originally posted by orionthehunter
I bet the nuclear winter would get them though.

Yeah, there would be nothing to eat. Nuclear winter would pretty much wipe out all surface life, but chemosynthetic organisms on the seafloor would survive. I'm still unsure of how mammals and other reptiles survived the pleistocene glatiations that come with the supposed comet impact theory.

if i had a gun with only one bullet, and i was being attacked by zombies, and there was no chance of survival, then hell yes, i'd use the bullet for suicide, instead of "death-by-zombie". but to me, thats not an extreme enough situation to warrant the entire obliteration of earth.

even the "28 days later" scenario wouldn't warrant that- all it would take is a few days of all living creatures hiding out, then the lack of living prey would starve anyone infected.

same with zombies- if they can't get near living flesh, eventually they'd die.

so posing a good scenario that would warrant obliteration, then coming up with some way of killing off everything might make thinking of a way to do it easier.

i'm just saying what if.....there probably is a situation that would require this so how could we destroy life to the single biomolecule?