So I don't know if it's just because it's a topic I'm interested in that I'm seeing all sorts of documentaries and B movies about various ways the world can end, or if there's some uptick lately in that genre, but there sure are a lot of ideas out there! Some we could survive, some probably not.
If an asteroid hits the earth the size of the one that killed off the dinosaurs (assuming that that really is what killed off the dinosaurs) would we survive it? That world's end idea is very plausible. After all, there is plenty of evidence that this large rock we're riding has been bombarded over time with a little of this, a little of that, maybe even another planet at one point. How devastating it would be to humanity is entirely dependent upon the size of the rock that hits us, of course. Will Bruce Willis be there to save us from this doom if it comes our way? Well, let's hope we don't have to find out.
There are some scary bugs out there, these days, that could reach epidemic proportions so easily it makes ones head swim to really read up on it. I don't know how a person could even study that kind of thing and stay sane. Reading The Coming Plague is enough to make you want to crawl under your bed and stay there a few decades. The Influenza epidemic of 1918 was horrific and watching documentaries on that is truly staggering, thinking of the sheer number of people who died from "just the flu". Will a shot help? Who can really say. What if some monster in the Middle East weaponizes Small Pox? That's a truly terrifying thought. Watch one, just ONE documentary on what Small Pox does to a person and how easily it was transmitted all on its own, then consider it weaponized and made even more deadly? Eek! Let's just not! The Black Death was another lovely little thing to read about. Bubonic Plague? Rabies? Some new bug sneaking out of the rainforests we're so intent on destroying? Yeah, probably not something that would destroy all human life, but bad enough you don't want to think about it.
Aliens!? Please. If some kind of extra terrestrial life form is able to travel through space to arrive at our planet and they want us dead, then we're dead. If they are capable of interstellar travel then they're capable of laughing off whatever we could throw at them. So not even really worth thinking about. Will Smith is awesome, but I tend to think we wouldn't get that lucky.
How about The Rapture? Well, I've watched quite a few documentaries on that, too, and read about it my entire life. I think it's about one one-hundredth of a percent as likely to happen as the aliens showing up and equally as hopeless if it does happen, to survive, so even less worthy of serious thought.
Nuclear war. I grew up with that threat. That one feels like a very likely possibility, probably because I have memories of how to hide under my desk or file into a brick lined hallway and duck and cover en masse. Realistically, a nuclear war would not destroy all of humanity. Somebody would survive, certainly. Who that might be would depend greatly on who sent the bombs and where they aimed them. During the Cold War I grew up just a mile or so away from a secondary nuclear target, so I was always assured that I wouldn't survive to have to worry about it. Funny, the things we grew up with that our kids just really couldn't possibly understand.
Volcanic Winter/Climate Change is another one that a lot of B movies are based on. This one isn't even unlikely. Climate Change is real, despite people's attempts at debating it. And while it may be debatable how influential mankind has been on it's speed, the climate doesn't really care who's right or who's wrong. It's going to do what it's going to do. Whether the poles shift, or the salinity of the ocean changes global weather patterns, or some other scenario that we can only imagine and hope never comes our way, mankind would very likely survive in some form. Would I, personally? Well, for a while maybe. How long would really depend on so many things that nobody can really say for sure. These days most people try to be prepared to live a good week without power or outside assistance. After that it's just a matter of time.
There are so many ways that our world could end. Most of them wouldn't be the end of The World, because the world itself would go on without us like a dog that's just shaken off a case of fleas. I don't think we'd be missed all that much! Most of the scenarios don't seem like they'd kill off all of humanity, but certainly most of it, and certainly change the way that humans survive on this world. What's the most likely world changing disaster coming? Who knows....I think it's very possibly Yellowstone erupting, but the pole shift could beat that to the punch. What do you think? Do you think you'd survive for a while? Or maybe for the long haul? How prepared are you for bad things to happen? How long could your household survive if civilization around us collapsed? Or is it the furthest thing from your mind?
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