A depressing yet nonetheless important question; a question that brings in a perplexing, thought provoking conversation; will humans be the reason for our own extinction? Unfortunately, that possibility is not as far-fetched as it may seem. Here are three human-driven factors that could result in mankind’s final trip around the sun.
Nuclear War
Nuclear war is a very scary, but realistic, option. Nuclear weapons have already been used in combat against the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in WWII. At the time, though, Japan lacked a developed enough atom bomb to counter with and surrendered. However, in the event that a full fledged nuclear war did erupt, the results could be irreversible. The destruction from the bomb itself would be detrimental, but what would end up being more devastating would be the effects it would cause. Exposure to radiation, either internal from the fallout or external from the blast, would be deadly. Moreover, the smoke and debris from the explosion would cover the world in a thick smog, blocking the sun. In turn, agriculture would be affected, and temperatures would rapidly decrease, resulting in what is known as a nuclear winter.
Climate Change
Climate change, which is already in action, is another possible factor that can lead to devastation. From the raging California fires to the record breaking Florida hurricanes, climate change is rapidly increasing, and it is scary. Fortunately, climate change is less likely to lead to a mass human extinction than to other species and biomes. Since humans are creative creatures, it is predicted that people would be able to adapt to severe weather conditions caused by global warming. That doesn’t mean it isn’t a threat, though. Climate change has serious effects on the ecosystem, which is the foundation that human survival relies on. Besides the threat that more than a third of Earth’s animal and plant populations face extinction by 2050, extreme weather events are more likely to become habitual, and humans are already feeling the effects.
Pandemics
Another event that has already been recorded many times before throughout history, pandemics are nothing new. COVID-19, the most recent pandemic first discovered in late 2019, gave modern humans a taste of what a world wide outbreak can really result in. Society was lucky enough to be met with the first variant of a vaccine in December 2020, but what happens when that isn’t enough? Highly infectious diseases are capable of destroying huge amounts of people in small amounts of time. The Black Plague, for example, killed between 25 and 50 million people in Europe alone, almost 50 percent of their population. While some like to believe that medicine can handle such diseases, the reality is that strains of viruses can adapt to vaccines. In fact, many different strains of COVID-19 have been discovered, like Alpha, Beta and Delta. In other words, if a virus is able to evolve to such a degree that it can overpower vaccines, it would be catastrophic. While that sounds like straight out of a Sci-Fi movie, it has actually occurred and is occurring. Superbugs, which most often come in the form of bacteria that have developed antibiotic resistance, are a real life example. These alien-like bacteria are more prevalent than one might think, and can be the first step for more powerful superbugs.
Conclusion
In reality, the chances of mankind becoming extinct in the next billion years, let alone anytime soon, is highly unlikely. Besides, the factors spoken on in this article are just educated guesses; no one really knows what the future has in store for humanity.
