From a massive asteroid impact to giant waves, here 8 ways the world can end
Number 8 Asteroid Impact Asteroid impacts have gotten so much of the
“Hollywood treatment” that it’s becoming harder to perceive them as a legitimate threat.
That being said they’re always within the realm of possibility.
For example, there are thousands of ice-balls, more than 50 miles in diameter, in the Kuiper
Belt.
This zone lies just beyond Neptune and has sent a stream of smaller comets towards our
planet.
It would take a space rock only 5 miles across to cause catastrophic damage on Earth, regardless
of where it landed.
The impact itself would release more than a billion times the energy of the nuclear
bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Many would perish in the blast alone.
Debris would rise up into the atmosphere and then fall back down, heating the atmosphere
until most above-ground creatures would be cooked alive.
Lingering particles in the atmosphere would block out the sun for up to a year, causing
famine and devastating environmental changes.
Number 7 Rise of AI Another favorite among science fiction scenarios
is the end of the world due to the rise of artificial intelligence.
There are a number of researchers that argue we’re only a few decades from the singularity,
the point when AI matches or even surpasses human intelligence.
Even technology entrepreneur Elon Musk has expressed concern in this regard.
However, a “Terminator”-like situation, with killer robots running amok, isn’t the
most likely one.
Nevertheless, since most of our systems are technology-dependent, an AI takeover could
be worrisome.
One common theory is that it will become “too good at its job” and harm humans as it seeks
out ultimate efficiency.
This concern is amplified by the perspective of AI-controlled military weaponry.
Stanislav Petrov became known in history as the man who “single-handedly saved the world.”
What did he do?
Did he a.
Find a plague vaccine b.
Prevent nuclear war c.
Discover the impact of global warming d.
Plot the fall of the Soviet Union Let us know what you think in the comments
section below and keep watching to find out the right answer.
Number 6 Gamma-Ray Burst Gamma-Ray bursts, or GBRs, are thought to
be released during a massive supernova or the merger of two collapsed neutron stars.
They're the brightest electromagnetic events known to occur in the universe and may last
from 10 milliseconds to several hours.
In just a few seconds more energy is released than the Sun will give out in its entire lifespan.
Gamma-Ray Bursts typically occur billions of light years away from Earth.
However, there’s a GBR candidate just 8,000 light years away, known as a Wolf-Rayet star.
It’s expected to collapse into a supernova at some point in the next several hundred
thousand years.
When that happens the explosion might generate a Gamma-ray burst that could hit the Earth.
The potent radiation would instantly cook the ozone layer, leaving us exposed to the
full force of the Sun’s ultraviolet rays.
The ensuing effects range from an increase in skin cancer to the death of ocean plankton,
responsible for supplying oxygen to the atmosphere.
One theory is that the Ordovician-Silurian extinction event was caused by a 10-second
GBR.
It was released by the collapse of a hypernova, within 6,000 light years of Earth.
Number 5 Global Warming We’ve touched upon the potentially devastating
effects of global warming in previous videos.
Despite a number of climate change deniers, the science community has deemed the evidence
behind it to be irrefutable.
Moreover, it seems that human activity has been a major driving factor since the 20th
century.
A number of researchers believe we’re approaching the point of no return in matters of global
warming and its associated effects.
Future devastating events include severe droughts, increased frequency of extreme weather, spreading
of disease, the extinction of many plant and animal species as well as rising sea levels
which may cause low-lying areas to become submerged.
With the population unable to cope with these dramatic changes, an increase in armed conflicts
across the globe is highly probable.
Number 4 Nuclear War An all-out nuclear conflict was a common fear
during the Cold War.
However, as long as countries possess nuclear armament the fear will always be there.
Whether these are secret programs in countries like Iran and North Korea, or massive stockpiles
in Russia and the US, weapons of mass destruction are a very real threat.
It’s particularly terrifying if these weapons ever get into the wrong hands in an instance
of severe political instability.
As of 2019, the symbolic Doomsday Clock, which has been used to determine how close we are
to global destruction, remains at two minutes to midnight.
The setting was attributed to the dual threat of climate change and nuclear weapons.
WW II provided an example of what a nuclear attack looks like and it’s gut-wrenching.
It‘s worth mentioning that, since then, nuclear weapons have become much more potent.
Aside from unparalleled destruction and radiation another major effect of global war would be
nuclear winter.
Thick smoke would rise into the stratosphere, where the weather can’t disperse it.
It would block out the sun leading to famine and wide-scale human death.
Number 3 Pandemic We’ve seen it before, with the Black Death
and the Spanish Flu, how a pandemic can decimate populations all-over the world.
It’s not far-fetched to imagine that a super-virus could one day wipe out the human race.
Viruses and bacteria evolve alongside humans and some species have already become resistant
to antibiotics.
It wouldn’t take long for a highly-contagious, deadly strain to become uncontainable.
What’s even scarier is that we might actually end up helping a super-virus burn through
the population.
Through vaccination we provide training to our immune system on how to recognize and
eliminate pathogens.
However, against overwhelming scientific evidence, there are those who choose not to vaccinate.
The World Health Organization has identified vaccine hesitancy as one of the top ten global
threats of 2019.
Number 2 Volcanism Some threats come from outside our planet
while others hail from within.
Extreme volcanic activity has been theorized as a driving factor behind the Permian-Triassic
extinction, the most devastating event of its kind in the planet’s history.
Also known as the “Great Death” it caused 95 per cent of the planet’s species to become
extinct.
The eruption of the Siberian Traps, which aligns itself with the extinction’s timeline,
was one of the largest volcanic events to ever occur on Earth.
It sent noxious debris and gases into the atmosphere and covered more than 770,000 square
miles with lava, in a snowballing effect believed to have caused the extinction.
Past trends suggest we’re long overdue for a supervolcanic eruption.
The last one occurred in New Zealand, roughly 26,000 years ago.
Even though we can determine an eruption up to a few months in advance, we’re essentially
powerless to stop it.
Massive earthquakes, megatsunamis and raging pyroclastic flows are to be expected when
a supervolcanic eruption occurs.
So, what did Stanislav Petrov do to save the world?
The right answer was b, prevent nuclear war.
In 1983, a Soviet satellite malfunctioned and transmitted that five nuclear missiles
had been launched by the US.
Petrov, who was monitoring the Soviet nuclear command center, went against protocol by treating
the transmission as a false alarm.
He thus prevented a retaliatory response that would have potentially resulted in global
nuclear war.
Number 1 Megatsunami More than 65 million years ago, a giant asteroid
impacted the Gulf of Mexico, triggering events that led to the extinction of the non-avian
dinosaurs.
The Chicxulub asteroid was roughly 9-miles across and caused all matter of destruction,
not the least of which was an enormous tsunami.
After the initial impact, a wave almost 1 mile high swept through the Gulf of Mexico
travelling close to 100 miles per hour.
In 2019, researchers modelled its effects and how it rippled across all of the planet’s
ocean basins.
In the North Atlantic and South Pacific, waves reached almost 50 feet.
A similar event today would be catastrophic for coastal populations all-over the world.
Megatsunamis might also be triggered by the melting of the polar ice caps.
It can lead to massive landslides of ice sheets or an increase in the frequency of large earthquakes,
as the Earth’s crust adjusts to the removal of the ice weight.
These events can generate tremendous, potentially world-ending waves.
Thanks for watching!
What would be the first thing you’d do if you found out the world was going to end tomorrow?
Let us know in the comments section below!