Viewing Thread:
"How will the world end?"

All things must die in the long run, so lets have a vote.

a) Asteroid smashes the Earth in two
b) The old classic of WW3 and nuclear/chemical death etc
c) Global warming
d) Ailens invading/destroying
e) Overpopulation, end of finite reources etc

CM - the sun will EVENTUALLY go supernova yes, but millions (perhaps billions) of years before that it will grow in size until it becomes a red giant. A red giant created by our very own sun will be so big it will encompass most of the planets in the solar system.

After that it will collapse, creating a white dwarf, and will eventually go KABLAMMO.

by this time, us and our planet will be a distant memory though.

the sun runs on hydrogen i think, when it's supply starts to run out,it will go looking for it and will run into this planet destroying it completely.

Regarding the sun scenario.

The sun will eventually go supernova and explode because as it burns it is getting hotter and hotter. When it finally explodes there will be a heat wave which will travel millions of miles in all directions, and will of course hit the earth. The land will be scorched, the seas and oceans will boil and all life will be dead. The earth will still be intact.

Thats what my old chemistry book said.

I buggered the question up didnt I?

Sure, I think we'll have the "tear ourselves apart" phase, but something will emerge of that.

What's more likely to me is that the "tearing ourselves up" will be limited geographically to certain areas of the world which rely on certain resources. In the West we're reliant on certain non-renewable enery sources but we have the tech and the will, when pushed, to find alternatives. We're reliant on oil because oil is cheap, but if we had to we could get alternatives without a great deal of chaos. Supplies like food also come largely from other Western nations with similar stability and we do have the tech to grow our own under artifical conditions if we had to.

In Africa, Asia, and parts of the Middle East, that's not the case but the subsequent violence could be largely contained, but it would still spill over into other nations through terrorism and suchlike.

El Blokey wrote:
> Not with a bang, but a whimper.

most clichéd quote ever! :D

Not with a bang, but a whimper.

CAN'T BELIEVE IT TOOK TWO PAGES TO SAY THIS.

Belldandy wrote:
> So, I'm the only one convinced that, come the inevitable end, we'll be
> long gone anyway? Odds are what is seen as human now will not be the
> same in millions of years.

there won't be any humans in millions of years, not unless we pull ourselves together and start acting the mature beings we can be. We need to start planning for the future, I don't see that happening anywhere, do you? All I see is the human race living beyond its means simply because it can, and very few people actually consider what will be left for future generations.

Our resources are being used up far quicker than they can be replaced, we squabble over what we have, killing each other in the process. When it's gone, the human race will either a) finally grow up and pull together to create a universally fair society, pooling its knowledge to save itself from certain disaster. or b) tear itself apart.

Going off history, I'd say b) is the more likely. Not pessimism, realism I think.

So, I'm the only one convinced that, come the inevitable end, we'll be long gone anyway? Odds are what is seen as human now will not be the same in millions of years.

It'll be scorched, then swallowed up by the sun, not that it'll matter much to us.

It's a pretty safe bet we'll have either blown ourselves up or been wiped out by something else, well before all that happens.