What is on Your Mind?

The earth's surface is 2/3 water. Changing climate and unpotable water may doom some areas and people, but the human race won't run out of water unless we run out of energy to purify it with. Even worst-case, small amounts of water could be purified with solar energy.

that's true, but much of it is undrinkable and needs to be purified, energy cost needs to be considered and not all countries can afford especially now with escalating price of fuel.

I read that in countries like China there is are huge water problems, due to rapid pace of urbanization water is being re-directed from elsewhere to feed cities resulting in many huge lakes being dried up, there are more cases of famines now in the countryside. China is throwing billions of dollars to try to solve the problem, if there is no solution there will be no China growth story.

India cities are also growing and much of the infrastructure is in dismal condition not as bad as china but in time it will be.

Global population is estimated to grow to 9 billion in 30 years time this is going to put a big strain on drinkable water and resources of which much are already tapped out, we humans are our own disaster in the making our own growth stories will become our undoing, we are eating, using our way into a rendezvous with destiny.

The end of life as we know it doesn't mean the end of the human species.

????

I assume you mean how will planet earth end and not civilization / humans.... as the title of this thread is "How Will the World End?" A bit pedantic I know, but hey... I'm an engineer and a scientist..

Thus, the correct answer is

"Earth is hit by an Asteroid and Blots out the Sun". "Blotting" is irrelevant. A large enough impact could disrupt the earth orbit to the point where the planet falls into the sun.

All other options result in the earth surviving...

You scanned the list too quickly.

I understand most astronomers and cosmologists agree that number 1, "Red giant expansion of our Sun burns up the Earth", will happen no more than 5 billion years from now. The physical earth will be toasted, torn apart and absorbed.

Also, number 7, "The Big Crunch", probably refers to the expansion of the universe ending and then collapsing to the opposite of the big bang. I understand most believe this will not happen. But if it did, the physical earth would end up being compressed into the singularity.

And the last one, "Scientists trying to simulate a black hole will succeed", silly as it is, would physically destroy the earth.

The "world" will end when God types this on the console :-), sorry for the "geeky" answer, but could not help it

Code:

God@world # halt

I think #1 is out, as the Earth's orbit will widen as the sun starts to expand and will most likely survive. The impact theory has a much higher chance of causing the earth to dive into the sun, but a greater chance of being ejected completely from the solar system.

If you take the latest (supported) theories, then #7 is basically out (due to acceleration). There is a proponent of the "Variable Speed of Light" (Magueijo), which I think results in a non-accelerating universe. If this is true, then the "great crunch" may be possible. There is one thought which is similar to #7... if you believe in the concept of "branes", we could be "collapsed" into non-existence via two branes colliding, resulting in another "Big Bang"... not really a crunch, more like the "Great Collision", like being smacked up side the head with a bat or banging your head against a wall ... ha ha

The last one is also out as the size of the Black hole created by the LHC results in an almost instantaneous evaporation via Hawkings Radiation.


All seriousness aside... good poll, make a person smile inside... (for those Darwinist among us )