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Dr. Martin Rees, professor of astrophysics at Cambridge University, claimed in his book Our Final Century, that humans have only a 50-50 shot of making it through the 21st century without a major setback.
Presented in no particular order, here are a few of the ways life could end on Earth in the next hundred years:
1) Major Strike by an Asteroid or Comet
Pound for pound, comets are actually more dangerous than asteroids, because they travel a lot faster through space. Asteroids travel at about 25-30 km per second, while the speed of a comet approaches 70 km per second. The kinetic energy of an incoming object from space obeys the equation: Kinetic Energy = 1/2 the mass of the object x (velocity) ^ 2. Simply put, an object of just one and a half km in diameter hitting the Earth would release more energy than all the atomic bombs ever detonated. An object of 20 km diameter or more could cause mass extinction.
2) Earth is Swallowed by a Man-Made Black Hole
Although this scenario is unlikely, when the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider was being built at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York, it was theorized that a state of 'dense matter' could be formed, something that had never been done previously. Some scientists wondered if this could create a small 'black hole', which would suck matter from everything around it, until the entire Earth was gone. It is doubtful that the Brookhaven could create such a hole, but if they build bigger accelerators in the future, well, you never know...
3) Global Warming
The Earth is practically foaming at the mouth on whether it's man-made, a natural solar phenomenon, or nothing at all. Assuming it's real for the sake of argument, the worldwide temperature may rise as much as 2 degrees Celsius, hotter than anything in the last one and a half million years. It could lead to famine on a scale never before seen, mass migration, and fighting over the available resources still available. It probably wouldn't wipe man totally from the Earth, but things would be a lot worse than now.
4) Worldwide Pandemic
This scenario is highly likely to occur this century. The Influenza Pandemic of 1918 killed over 20 million people in about a year. The biggest risk here is that a virus such as HIV or smallpox could mutate until it was spread as easily as a common cold. Not everyone would die, since some people would be resistent to certain viruses, or entirely immune. It could thin out the population greatly, though. Perhaps by billions.
5) Robots Take Over The World
This is not as far-fetched as you think. Processing power doubles every year or two. By mid-century, robots could catch up to man in the ability to perform abstract thinking and may take over many functions presently perfomed by humans, including diagnosis of medical problems, scientific research, and other higher positions. It's even possible that humans may find immortality at last by uploading the content of their brains into advanced robots.
6) Gamma Ray Burst
These are a reletively new discovery, and there is much debate on the subject. However, if an intense GRB of at least thirty seconds duration occurred within 6,000 light years of Earth, it would likely wipe out most life on the planet. In any event, there would be few survivors. Currently, astronomers record an average of one or two a day anywhere in the known universe.
7) Nuclear Holocaust
Believe it or not, this threat is less serious than a half-century ago. International controls on the spread and use of nuclear weapons have been reasonably effective. Although a rogue state could cause severe damage to a specific target, the possibility of an all-out launch of thousands of nukes is unlikely. As time passes, if man is not actively constructing more weapons, the older ones will eventually become obsolete and likely be phased out of arsenals.
8) Overpopulation
This could be the biggest threat to continued life on the planet, because as more people need to be fed, it puts even greater pressure on our rapidly shrinking resources. Most of our present global problems can be linked to it in one way or another. Ever since the book The Population Bomb warned us about overpopulation back in the Sixties, it still remains the most realistic danger. People living on the planet as of today represent one in five of EVERYONE who has EVER lived on Earth...and it's getting worse. By 2050, the population of Earth will reach 9 billion or more. If you compare this growth to the history of the population up to this point, it is frightening.
It took the entire history of man until the year 1800 just to reach a population of one billion. Now we're adding another billion people to the planet about every fifteen years. Something has to give - and it certainly will. Combine this threat with some of the other threats listed above and it could mean the end of homo sapiens.
Time to stock up on plastic sheeting and duct tape.
