What do YOU think will be the end of the world, if it were to happen?

It’ll be the government, for sure. No doubts.

Nuclear war. I think the day will come.

Viruses that develop faster/stronger than science can manage.

The end of Humankind will indeed come from a petri dish.

What do you consider the world? Just the earth or the whole universe?

I happen to think that the universe will exist infinitely.

Earth has been decimated by natural event many times in it’s 14 billion year history. It will happen again, luckily for us there are millions of years between such catastrophic events.

I truly believe the end of our existance will be the result of extreme climate changes. Once those ice caps melt, its curtains!

Disease. Between the thought that science might might be able to keep up and the fact that so many people may not have access to the necessary health care to prevent the spread of disease. (Also, the lack of basic sanitary living – the lack of clean water!)

Earth will be destroyed when the sun becomes a red giant in about 5 million years. Yes, in itty-itty-bitty pieces! It’ll be like that Joni Mitchell song: “We are stardust…”

The end of humanity may come sooner, but I couldn’t possibly guess from what.

Read this the other day.

By “end of the world,” do you mean “the end of civilization as we know it?” I’d then have to nominate “the end of the cheap oil era,” but that would only knock us back to pre-oil technology, after all the dying.

But to end it for good and all? That’s hard. Climate change. Disease. Those are both good options. Even then, non-human life remains, so how much of an “end” is it?

@laureth Yeah I actually wanted to go back and clarify that I meant the end of humanity. Good answers BTW.

I will close my eyes and never open them again. That will be the end of my world and it WILL, not might happen.

Nuclear war, I think.

Aprilsimnel nailed “end of the world”, imo.

End of humanity, I’d go with large meteorite or comet.

antibiotics

I’m surprised no one has mentioned “God’s Wrath” and I’m an atheist. Obviously, I don’t think that is the answer, but I do believe it will come as a surprise to some people when pollution overwhelms the earths restorative resources, and we die off from the short sighted policies of big business.

@lynneblundell Second on my list.

@essieness crikey have I actually found someone else that dislikes the evil things as much as me???

From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.

When discussing how we’ll be lost,
I hold with those who’re quoting Frost!

@lynneblundell Purell could cause the end of civilization as we know it.

Apathy. I think if the end of the world comes/when it comes it’ll be because of apathy. People just don’t seem to care. Our environment is practically dieing but so little people care. It is sad. I can see this happening on many levels.

a jewish philosopher once stated, “Save a life, and you save the universe”.

That’s antithetical but very much in line with what galileogirl wrote above, “I will close my eyes and never open them again..that will be the end of MY world…”.

that the earth will come to an end and humanity most likely long before the earth, is a given. That the universe can be saved many times before that is as much a given.

So, while I say to hell with December 21, 2012, I as much say we can’t just live for today for tomorrow we may die…tomorrow will certainly arrive. Let us save the universe many times along the way.

Let’s do something about global warming. Let’s do something to help those less fortunate than ourselves. The homeless, hungry, persecuted, forgotten…those suffering from mental illness.

I guess my bottomline is that the end will come, but what matters is everything before that and that we do everyhing we can not to contribute towards that end.

In the year 2413, after being cut-off by the unsympathetic colonies on Mars (now known as The United Planet of Earth Pt. 2), the Earth’s population of 18 billion will abandon all government and market systems, in panic, in a desperate race to take and use the Earth’s last resources, thus creating a live remake of Mad Max.

God’s wrath.

Supervolcano. Homo sapiens will survive but lose all technology. Alternative: genetically engineered virus. Homo sapiens might not survive.

The day the bees die, it will be the beginning of the end of the world…realistically.

…and don’t forget the frogs (which are dying)

How the end of the world will occur, if referring to the conclusion of the universe, is near impossible to predict given that we as a species have yet to fully comprehend how the universe came to be (and will likely not reach an objective conclusion on such a matter). Disregarding this however, my immediate thoughts are drawn to unforeseeable possibilities due primarily to the surprising amount of phenomena that could transpire at any given moment and potentially ‘end’ the universe e.g. the emergence of a black hole.
If the “end of the world” as illustrated in the initial question refers to the end of the human species then I believe such shall be caused by either the unpredictable destruction of the planet Earth (and/or whatever colonies on other moons or planets may have been developed by this point) or universe or if, as many have implied, the conclusion of the human species comes as a result of human hands I believe such shall be due to an accident relating to something of great significance.

Many have speculated that biological or nuclear warfare will bring about the end of humanity but I feel inclined to believe otherwise. Despite our seeming tendency to cause suffering for and amongst ourselves, we, as humans, are surprisingly intelligent creatures. Our ability to adapt and develop under times of great pressure (e.g. develop antidotes to evidently vicious diseases) has proven indispensable in our survival and I believe this same ‘nack’ for survival shall be retained when placed in situations involving substantial amounts of powerful manmade weapons such as artificial diseases and nuclear explosives.
@RedPowerLady I must respectfully disagree. From what I have observed of human behavioural tendencies, above all less, they are dictated by a principle of “function by necessity”, that is we act to alter an entity or situation only when it is absolutely necessary that such be done due to the potential detriments involved outweighing the potential benefits. Consequently I would deem it improbable that our ‘world’ will end due to apathy, although I do not doubt that such a feeling shall place us in strenuous circumstances as it has done in the past.
@chelseababyy How so?

but, um..the fucking frogs are dying man…uh, whatta think about that?

@Nially_Bob Some things you can’t recover once they are gone. We are getting very close to that point of “absolute necessity”. But I must say I do see flaws in your theory such as the species we have already let go extinct. I suppose we will see if your theory stands true or not. I hope you are right and not me.

@RedPowerLady From an objective (and admittedly selfish) standpoint, any species that have became extinct as a result of the human species actions were likely not of great importance to us and so their preservation would not have constituted as being a necessity. You are correct in stating that some things cannot be recovered, but they may be replaced. When coal became scarce huge amounts of money and manpower were directed towards researching and producing other means of creating energy as it was deemed absolutely necessary to do so as coal could not simply be recovered (though some scientists may have devised a way in which this is possible now given that artificial diamond creation is currently possible).
I acknowledge that my initial comment made it appear that I have great belief in this hypothesis which was not my intention, by all means it is possible that we as a species could be our own undoing due to our apathy, but judging by what I have studied and observed of human behaviour if this is so it will be a rare phenomena or a ‘one off’ if you will in which we shall procrastinate to a very slightly larger degree than usual when something threatens us, perhaps accidentally or under the illusion that said ‘something’ is not as much a liability as it in-fact is.
Returning to the initial question however, I would consider the aforementioned phenomena less probable than an unforeseen scientific phenomena such as the emergence of a black hole ending our existence.

@Nially_Bob This is under the same lines of what I was thinking: quote:
“under the illusion that said ‘something’ is not as much a liability as it in-fact is.”
i.e. the degradation of our environment