How will the world end

[The Yugoslavian]

The world will end when I die peacefully in my sleep at 95, [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img].

Yugoslav

[suppasonic]

Well, this world is just a simulation run by a higher world, so whenever that world shuts us off.

[pepper123]

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

[blufish]

ending the world is tough. and killing off the pesky humans is almost as tough. the end of the u.s. is eminent tho. in 50 or 60 years you won't recognize the u.s., if it exists at all. it is based on an idea, one that is forgotten, and it will soon run the course of other free societies in the past, and implode from within. i guess that wasn't the question, tho...

btw, i get a kick out of the global warming folks... just as i would any other parrot.

[econophile]

if humaninty can colonize other planets in the next millenium, expected survival time increases dramatically

[admiralfluff]

There are 3 relevant ends:

The end of our civilization, the extinction of humanity, the end of our planet.

There's no way that any war, disease, severe climate change, or other man-made disaster will wipe out humanity. We are capable of surviving in diverse climates, are adaptive, and cover too much of the earth. Sure, global warming induced strife, or a catastrophic plague could decimate our civilization and reduce our numbers by several orders of magnitude, but as long as animals like us (large mammals) can survive on this planet, there will be humans. I expect any semblance of our civilization will be wiped out within 100k years.

After that, when the human race is dissociated in an awesome post apocalyptic world filled with mutants and whatnot, our extinction will almost certainly come from SEVERE climate change, which significantly alters the makeup of our atmosphere. In the major fossil record extinctions, this was likely caused by meteor impacts. This will make the earth inhospitable for most of the larger complex organisms on the planet. This will probably happen within the next 100 million years.

A billion or so years from now, A violent climate swing, the sun's expansion, will burn off most of our atmosphere and all liquid water on the planet, wiping out all but the simplest and most robusto of organisms. (Think mars).

In a few more billions of years, the sun will expand to a red giant in its death throws, and will eventually consume the earth, before collapsing into a brown dwarf.

In many trillions of years, the universe's rate of expansion will increase to the point where every particle of matter is independently isolated in its own little prison of space, with every other particale expanding away from it faster than the speed of light. Information will cease to exist, and entropy and coldness will reign supreme.

[Conspir8or]

Magnetic field reversal; while the poles are sorting themselves out, cosmic rays will either roast us like McNuggets or mutate us past all semblance of humanity.

[Blarg]

[ QUOTE ]
ending the world is tough. and killing off the pesky humans is almost as tough. the end of the u.s. is eminent tho. in 50 or 60 years you won't recognize the u.s., if it exists at all. it is based on an idea, one that is forgotten, and it will soon run the course of other free societies in the past, and implode from within. i guess that wasn't the question, tho...

btw, i get a kick out of the global warming folks... just as i would any other parrot.

[/ QUOTE ]

That sounds pretty boring.

[blufish]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
ending the world is tough. and killing off the pesky humans is almost as tough. the end of the u.s. is eminent tho. in 50 or 60 years you won't recognize the u.s., if it exists at all. it is based on an idea, one that is forgotten, and it will soon run the course of other free societies in the past, and implode from within. i guess that wasn't the question, tho...

btw, i get a kick out of the global warming folks... just as i would any other parrot.

[/ QUOTE ]

That sounds pretty boring.

[/ QUOTE ]

wasn't trying to be exciting. sorry. but i'm thinking you must be one of those global warming folks i mentioned? now THAT is boring.

[jerG123]

I'm not sure how the world will end but according to the Mayans the end begins December 21,2012 - might want to mark that down on your calanders.