What Is Most Likely To End Human Civilization?

[Intrepid_Timer]

I was going to add God and Man but God would include all the above and Man would be already be the cause of two. I'm looking for the answer as to how it will come about, not by whom.

This person thinks solar flares:

http://www.naturalnews.com/033564_solar_flares_nuclear_power_plants.html

 

[rikarus]

most likely stupidity.

 

[Intrepid_Timer]

most likely stupidity.

Guess I should have added that one...........

 

[nnuut]

About every 35,000,000 years something like that happens, so I would say being born at the wrong time is #1!

 

[Mapper]

I guess it sort of depends on how you define "the world". My definition is the "mass" that is the earth no longer existing as a planet...so with that, I've got to go with large meteor.

Solar flare could scorch us but the earth would still be in the gravitational pull of the sun until the sun grows to the point that we are fully engulfed...but my money is on a meteor strike prior to that.

I could agree w/ stupidity as it seems likely that, given enough time, we (man) could create some sort of explosive powerful enough to shatter the planet to bits and accidentally do so.

edit:
hmmm...I see the thread title is "human civilization" but the poll says "the world". My money is on Solar Flare for human civilization.

 

[Frixxxx]

What do I win if I guess right?


I selected other! I'd put my money on this pink katydid. It has that "Rule the World!" look......

 

[Intrepid_Timer]

Oh, if you win, YOU GET A NEW CAR!!!! Your pick..............

 

[Appatite]

Our elected officials.

 

[James48843]

Infertility

 

[burrocrat]

other: overleveraged sovereign debt and rising interest rates.

 

[turbo23dog]

I voted solar flares. It was the only choice close enough to our Sun going supernova. From college astronomy (note: not astrology, that's a pseudoscience), the sun will in about a couple of million years will collapse and turn into a black hole, sucking in all matter close and far away. The earth will likely be toast before this occurs as it is a part of that process, unless of course the freewill of man causes other calamity that brings the end sooner.

Brings to mind that old PBS television series and book: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and that most famous destination: The Restaurant at the end of the Universe. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Places_in_The_Hitchhiker's_Guide_to_the_Galaxy

From the notes at http://library.thinkquest.org/C001245/SunSn.html
As the mass of the star's iron core approaches 1.4 solar masses (due to continued silicon and sulfur burning in a thin shell adjacent to the iron core), a dramatic sequence of events is being triggered: Gravity, which up to now was balanced by the outward force of the pressure, decisively gains the upper hand and .In less than a second, the core collapses from a size of about 5,000 miles to one of about a dozen miles, and an enormous amount of energy is released. This collapse happens so fast that the star's outer layers have no time to react and participate in it. What is released during core collapse is truly gigantic. It is equivalent to the energy produced by 100 stars like the Sun, during their entire lifetimes of more than 10 billion years! Most of the energy released during the collapse of the iron core is carried off into space by elusive particles. A small fraction of the energy is deposited into the lower layers of the envelope surrounding the core and triggers the supernova explosion.