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Somehow, recently, people began to think especially often that our planet is actually quite fragile. And we (that is, humanity), with our unbridled behavior and ill-conceived actions, only bring a possible “global kapets” closer every hour.
After all, it is our fault that many species of plants and animals disappear, because of us the areas of once virgin forests decrease, rivers, lakes and even entire seas dry up.
It is possible that the number of tornadoes, hurricanes and other natural disasters is also growing every year due to our negative impact on the Earth’s climate.
And if we also remember that humanity has long had a weapon that can “bracket” all life on the planet in just a few minutes …
How many films have been made over the past 25-30 years on the topic of possible variants of the Apocalypse, even more books have been written (sometimes with a very realistic plot).
And by the way, not only science fiction writers, but also quite serious scientists name at least 10 reasons why people can disappear from the face of the Earth in the next 200-300 years.
10 Aliens
After reading the title of this paragraph, many will smile sarcastically, saying: “The authors have clearly revised Ren-TV.” Agree, this reason sounds somehow frivolous. But this is only at first glance.
In fact, many space scientists agree that the likelihood that intelligent life, in addition to ours, still exists somewhere in the universe is very high.
And, again, most likely “they” are much more “advanced” in terms of technology than we, earthlings.
Such well-known persons in the scientific community as the recently deceased Stephen Hawking and the fully alive Elon Musk have long warned against sending all sorts of terrestrial messages into space in the style of “Welcome! Let’s be friends!” to search for extraterrestrial intelligence. No matter how “they” really flew to the call …
9. Solar storms or gamma-ray bursts
“Actually, solar storms happen all the time,” you say. “We have been through so many of them, and nothing terrible has happened so far.”
But scientists fully admit that one day our Sun can “buck up” so much that it simply cuts out all the energy systems on Earth (in fact, there have been cases more than once or twice when serious flashes on our star “fried” earthly transformers). And who knows what could happen then, because today we are simply nowhere without electricity. One thing is for sure, the damage will be huge.
Another possible “threat from outer space” is a supernova explosion somewhere in our (or neighboring) galaxy. A sharp single release of a huge amount of energy can have very negative and long-term consequences for the Earth.
8. Drought and famine
The fact that people today have a very destructive effect on nature (and this already applies not only to large corporations with their huge fuming factories, but to humanity as a whole) can be heard literally from every iron.
It has come to the point that the climate is changing right before our eyes: there are thaws in the center of Siberia in winter, and Europe freezes more and more every year (now there is snow even in Africa), while in summer it is hellishly hot even where it should not be at all.
Deserts are spreading outward, forest-steppes are becoming dry steppes, and the world’s fresh water reserves are declining at a rapid pace.
Yes, we are aware that more than 70% of our planet is covered with water. But fresh water in this figure does not exceed 3%. And in many regions of the Earth it is catastrophically lacking.
And where there is no water, plants do not grow and animals do not multiply: therefore, there is nothing for people to eat either. In fact, already now 800 million people out of 7,7 billion are starving on Earth.
7. Overpopulation coupled with resource depletion
By the way, speaking of the growth of the population of our planet: until the end of the XVIII century. the question of how it is possible to support the existence of so many people, in principle, was not particularly acute – the Earth could well feed the 1 billion people that lived on it.
But in 1798, Thomas Malthus’s famous book, An Essay on the Law of Population, was published, where he expressed the theory that an uncontrolled increase in the number of people would sooner or later lead to global famine.
By the beginning of the 1,5th century, there were already 1950 billion of us, by 2,5 – 7,7 billion, and by now it has become 120 billion. That is, in some incomplete 5 years, the population of the Earth has grown by XNUMX (!) once.
And yes, in the most developed countries, people are now not very eager to have children, preferring a career or just personal comfort. But the rest of the planet continues to actively multiply, despite the fact that even now there are not enough resources for everyone (and over time there will be less and less of them).
6. supercollider
Who will argue: the creation of the Large Hadron Collider has become a real breakthrough in elementary particle physics. It will, of course, help scientists to understand much better the structure and “principles of operation” of our Universe.
But both before and after this “hellish machine” was first tested in practice, a lot of controversy circulated around it: they say, will physicists be able to keep all processes under control, and will they not accidentally create a miniature black hole right on Earth?
And actually, science has recently been getting closer and closer to those dangerous boundaries beyond which man-made “end of the world” can stand.
5. Biological warfare
In continuation of the conversation about science and its achievements. Genetically modified fruits, vegetables and cereals have not surprised anyone for a long time. Cloning has also been tried (and quite successfully).
Biotechnologies are currently developing so rapidly that many scientists (from philosophers to, in fact, biologists themselves) are seriously worried about this – it is not known what we will think of and how we will apply the latest discoveries.
After all, humanity (and especially the groups of people that control it) is somehow not distinguished by either special kindness or meekness: quite the contrary, it is trying to invent more and more reliable and effective (and, highly desirable, fast) ways to destroy a potential adversary.
There are persistent rumors that, for example, tick-borne encephalitis was developed in secret Japanese laboratories during World War II, and also that in the United States similar experiments with various deadly diseases (as well as the search for the “most convenient” methods of their distribution, including the deliberate infection of living people ) have been underway since the beginning of the XNUMXth century, and have recently become very active.
3. superhumans
By the way, why not engage in genetic “bioprogramming” of our own citizens simultaneously with the quite purposeful “cutting out” of the enemy population?
So, for example, you can improve their immunity to the most dangerous viruses (after all, viruses do not recognize any state borders and, therefore, move freely in any direction), or maybe even artificially increase their intelligence, make their muscles stronger, and bones – strong, etc.
Hmm … But, it is quite possible that there are ways to “program” people for complete loyalty to the government. I wonder if they are still human?
3. Cyber war
What word do we hear a lot in the news lately? Terrorism. A church or a synagogue was blown up there, an entire stadium of people was shot here… It’s scary.
But what is much scarier is that thanks to modern technology, all these (most often fanatically intolerant) psychopaths, outcasts and “protesters” do not even have to be present at the crime scene. It is enough just to press a button on the keyboard to cause huge and irreparable harm at a specific point on the planet.
You can not only blow up something, but also arrange a transport collapse, or organize financial chaos, turn off electricity and communications, etc. And the greatest horror is that such tactics are already seriously considered as “very good” by entire states …
2. Virus resistance to antibiotics
Yes, humanity is evolving (including, already “correcting” this process by artificial methods). Among other things, we have invented many drugs for a variety of diseases (and even those that once mowed down hundreds of thousands of people in a matter of weeks).
We have strong antibiotics that seem to be able to cope with any viruses. But the fact is that viruses, as it turns out, are also evolving, and much faster than we could imagine.
And scientists say we humans are rapidly approaching the time when our antibiotics will be useless against new mutant viruses. By the way, we are also unlikely to have time to develop our own – natural – immunity. And then even a banal flu will kill us by the millions.
1. Nuclear Armageddon
And, finally, in the light of, so to speak, recent events in the world (we mean the increasingly threatening “rattling” of the most dangerous types of weapons, including nuclear weapons, as well as their widespread distribution): who can guarantee that one is far from perfect day, some pompous and self-confident idiot who has seized power will not press the notorious “red button”? Considering that the “answer” will not keep you waiting, humanity will “end” on this …