What will cause human extinction?
I have heared things such as nuclear war may be the cause of human extinction but im curious. What are your thoughts?
Observing members:
0
Composing members:
0
38 Answers
I’m no scientist but, I think man has the best chance of causing human extinction.
We will be our own destroyer just like all past civilizations before us. Disease would be my guess this go around.
Nukes in my mind are the #1 easiest way to there, but I’m not sure if it would truly extinct us. Overpopulation is a close second, although I’ll wait to see the trends as they develop.
Either way, it’s going to be our own causing.
I don’t think humans will go extinct. At least not the way those end of the world scenarios we see on tv or in magazines. Our numbers might be reduced, but we’ve lived through a freaking ice age.
But if I had to say one thing, maybe zombies?
Humans won’t become extinct in a big fiery cataclysm.
It won’t be any one thing that causes human extinction. It will be a combination of several events. It will happen due to climate change, lack of sustainable resources, disease and war.
Nuclear war will not cause human extinction, but the end of our present civilization. We are a tough breed. We will not go extinct for a long time.
We are heading into trouble climate change, and how we overcome them remains to be seen, but I am sure we will in one way or another.
We have are heading – from sailing boats and muskets 200 years ago – into something that looks like a technological singularity. That’s 300 years, and like snapping the fingers in human history. Will technology save us or bring us down?
A superflu, asteroid and supervolcanoes are huge threats, but I think we will be here for a long, long time.
But there were possibly some dinosaurs thinking that too.
I also think a repercussion of climate change could wipe out humanity, or a man-made change in the composition of our atmosphere.
High fructose corn syrup.
Good points! But in my mind humans have to go extinct sometime, in worse case scenario our sun could go supernova?
My friend says:
“We’re like the dinosaurs and maybe we are doing ourselves in much faster than they ever did.”
I’m holding out for a big asteroid.
Or, possibly, four angry dudes on horseback.
@ems
99.9% of all life that has ever existed on Earth is now extinct. What is to suggest that we will persevere?
@Ivan True. But then again, to our knowledge there has never been an animal before, that knew these odds, made it to space or joined online communities.
The unsatisfied man will probably do it. Pushing technology to the limit. Always wanting more than what he has, and writing checks his ass can’t cash. Thats just our species I guess.
hyper-intelligent velociraptors
Greed. Greed and brown adipose tissue.
Actual extinction will take a lot to happen. Something like a Third World War will wipe out lots and lots of people using nuclear weapons, but people will find a way to survive.
Even though there probably will be people surviving it, when a large object like a asteroid hits Earth strange things like engulfment in lava could happen, which would probably have the most effect.
having too much un-protected lurve
Human extinction will be a result of a lack of energy. We continually use energy for everything we do, and Thermodynamics says that this energy cannot be recovered. I think we will get to a point where we a running out of energy in all its forms, and not have enough remaining to support our huge population (solar and wind are not efficient, and are only good for small populations). This lack of energy will make agriculture difficult, and many people will starve. We will never colonise another planet, so once our resources are gone, we are gone.
The answer is in the question.
Toilet paper shortages.
We will use leaves at first, but over use will kill off all plant life. No more plants means we must scrub the carbon dioxide out of our air artificially. The massive amounts of energy needed will be provided by nuclear power plants… KABOOM!!!! Robot holocost.
How could we be so naive?
Human extinction is irrelevant. Extinction will occur at YOUR death. Nothing else really matters.
Not really. :-) We worry about saving the whales, keeping the air clean and, stopping war.
Human extinction, is such a broad endeavor. We need to focus on bettering OUR lives, in the amount of time allotted to us. The future will take care of itself, no matter wht we do or don’t do.
We worry about our legacy, what will people remember about us and our accomplishments. That is why we worry about it at all and, it is a nice thing to to think about. But, when we are dead we are dead. Not going to get a pat on the back when we are 6 feet under.
What will cause human extinction, is figuring out how the world will continue to spin. Well, it will spin the way it spins. It is irrelevant in the big scheme of things, relevant in our own minds.
human arrogance. the good thing is there’s such a variety of ways to apply it! maybe it’ll be a surprise. nuclear bombs, overpollution, global warming. man, the possibilities are endless.
I think that we have to take seriously the scenarios suggested by science fiction of humans monkeying around with genetics and electronics to create a whole new type of superior being. I am not saying that this will happen any time soon, but I think it could eventually happen. Could such beings properly be considered humans?
We don’t know what will cause it. It could be a meteor from space. It could be climate change that we can’t handle. It could be volcanos sending ash into the air that keeps us from having any sunlight for decades… It could be some virus… who knows?
One thing it will not be is nuclear war. That’ll only knock off about two-fifths of the world population. 3 billion plus is plenty to keep us going.
It’s space flight or extinction.
Answer this question 
This question is in the General Section. Responses must be helpful and on-topic.
Composing members:
0
