Possible ways of human extinction!!

Our human civilization is not even under Type 1 according to Kardashev scale . We are considered as type 0 which is not even able to harness...

Our human civilization is not even under Type 1 according to Kardashev scale. We are considered as type 0 which is not even able to harness all the energy of its planet. Presently we are confined to earth only. We have an extremely high rate of extinction which is about 99.9%. There are different possible ways of human extinction.

 Few of them are:

12.Climate change

Climate change could be one of the major factor responsible for the human extinction. Our development have cost us the enviroment and our activities have lead to the destruction of our ecosystem. The carbon levels have rose to a dangerous level.

 According to IPCC report, our present carbon dioxide level is approximately the highest in the past 800,000 years which is a very alarming condition. With the industrialization era the carbon levels have grown rapidly. If it continues in this way, we would barely survive 200 years. And we are considered the last generation to prevent the irreversible repercussions of these increased levels of carbon on our enviroment which includes global warming, increased temperature and increased sea level. These effects will eventually lead us to our extinction.

11.Exhaustion of resources

We are living on earth for millions of years and we know that we need resources to survive on earth. But what happens if all the resources are exhausted??

Resource depletion is a situation where the consumption of the resources is faster than it can be replenished. There are several forms of resource depletion like underwater depletion, deforestation, pollution, mining, soil erosion and many more. Once the resources are exhausted, we will not be able survive on earth. Either we will be shifting to other habitable planet or will face our extinction.

10.Global pandemic

From the ancient times there had been a lot of pandemics which caused a lot of destruction to human lives. Black death is such a case which caused almost 200 million deaths. And a lot of other pandemics are there which has hit humanity time to time and again and again. The viruses only mutate and return again after few centuries. One such case is SARS-COV which again hit as Covid 19 in 2019. It is a zoonotic disease which scientist fear could again return in the near future. If we encounter any disease in future, contiguous and deadly enough, humans would go extinct.

9.Nuclear holocaust

It is a theoretical scenario where the mass detonation of the nuclear bombs leads to the extinct of the human civilization. Althrough it may seem impossible but it can happen in the future. The repercussions of these wars will be very devastating and can lead to the collapse of our civilization and even the extinction of the entire human race. The main cause of the death will not be the shockwave and impact of the bombs, rather it would generate enough radiation to make the planet inhabitable. And the electromagnetic pulses generated due to bombings would be sufficient to permanently damage almost all the modern technology. As a result, even though human may survive the catastrophe anyhow but it would be the end of the modern civilization and humans will be pushed back to the iron age again.

8.Super volcano

You may be familiar with volcanoes. But super volcanoes are not ordinary volcanoes. Volcanoes with a Volcanic Explosivity Index(VEI) of 7 or 8, highest ever recorded are categorized as super volcanoes. Latest VEI 7 volcano erupted at Tambora , Indonesia in 1815 and latest VEI 8 was the Oruanui eruption 26,500 years before. Even the eruption of Mount vesuvius that swiped the city of pompeii was only of VEI 5. So what happens if one the largest supervolcano of the earth (Yellowstone) erupts?? That would definitely end up triggering our extinction. Its eruption would cause a layer of smoke and ash across whole north america. That could eventually be spread across the globe causing great changes in climate, economical collapses and possibly a new ice age causing billions of deaths.

7.Solar flare

Solar flares are the sudden increase in the brightness of the sun caused mainly due to magnetic reconnection which results in coronal mass ejection. These are the high energy particles ejected in the space which when hits earth, triggers geomagnetic storms interacting with the earth's magnetic field. It is estimated that the Pleistocene mass extinction was caused by one such flare, which eventually triggered the mass extinction of the megafauna and several other small mammals and birds. Solar flares in present times may be undetectable with naked eyes but does a lot of damage to the electronic devices and satellites. It can even damage the ozone layer of the earth , exposing us to the harmful UV rays. If a sufficiently large flare hits the earth in the future then it would easily fry all the electronic and radio based devices on the planet which will freeze the world economy and other activities. The communications will be lost, electricity will be lost, medications and foods supply will stop and eventually there will be millions of deaths due to sudden lack of technology. The damage of ozone layer will further add to the catastrophe and will lead us to our extinction.

6. Shifting of Earth's magnetic field

We all know that earth has a magnetic field around itself which protects us from the deadly charged particles, constantly thrown at as by the sun. But what happens when we lost this magnetic field temporarily?? Well the scientists have claimed that the earth's magnetic fields have changed the polarity for around 180 times over the course of 80 million years which means twice in a million years. And according to them, the last time this geo-magnetic reversal occurred was about 700,000 years ago which means we should be in the middle of such reversal. Although earth has lost almost 9% of its magnetic field in the last 200 years, but scientists believe that we will not encounter such reversals in the near future. But if such a reversal happens, it would last for thousands of years and will wreak havoc on earth. Just like the mars, earth would also lose its magnetic field (temporarily), exposing us to the direct radiations and solar flares which will cause mass extinction on the planet.

5. Extraterrestrial impacts

This is by far most obvious and most sudden way we could get eradicated from the planet. Asteroids hit earth constantly, most of which are small and unnoticed. But few of them can cause damage worth of millions of dollars. Like the Tunguska event of 1908 which damaged almost 80 million trees over an area of 2150 sq. km. Or the event of Chelyabinsk in 2013 which caused the damage worth of 30 million dollars. Similarly the bigger the asteroid, the bigger the impact and if large enough, could cause the mass extinction of the planet. One such event was the Chicxulub crater formed by a 10 km wide asteroid which eradicated dinosaurs millions of years ago. Althrough we are tracking all the asteroids which may hit earth in the next hundreds of years, but anything can happen. If we encounter with small ones we may be able to explode it in the space or change its direction using spacecrafts. But if it happens to be something bigger, we would be helplessly waiting for any miracle.

4. Supernova

When a huge star dies, its outer surface explodes due to its sudden collapse. And this enormous explosion is called supernova. These explosions are so massive that it will have noticeable effects on earth like increase in global warming even if it happens 100s of light years away. It is estimated that on an average, a supernova occurs as close as 33 light years, once every 240 million years. The main cause of the destruction due to a supernova on a planet like earth is due to gamma rays. It is estimated that the gamma burst due to a type II supernova at a distance less than 26 light years would be sufficient to destroy 50% of the ozone layer which will expose us to the harmful radiations of the sun. And the destruction of the ozone layer will be alone responsible for millions of deaths and it will take a long time to heal the ozone and it is possible that till then, either humans will be mutated or eliminated.

3. Alien invasion

For millions of years, people have always believed in someone superior than us who does not belong to Earth. Humans have always turned their eyes to the sky and wondered if someone is out there. What happens if this turns out to be true?? Of course scientists have never found any signs of life out of Earth, but still it is possible. Suppose any alien species is advance enough to observe us without us being able to notice them or maybe they are living among us for thousands of years. If in the future, we encounter such aliens and fought a war with them, it is likely that we will be defeated at the end. Not like movies, in real time we will not be able to match their technology. It will all depend on them, if they intend to advance our technology, or just defeat and enslave us, then humans will not go extinct. But if they just wanted destruction and use the resources of our planet, then we are definitely doomed.

2. Artificial intelligence

Robots and AI are considered as the biggest inventions of humans, automation is one the biggest achievement in the human history. But is it possible to get defeated by one of our own inventions? Many people like Stephen hawking and Elon musk have raised concerns over the usage and control of the robots in the future. Robots are made by humans and are controlled too. But scientists fear that if technological singularity(hypothetical condition were AI becomes smarter than humans) happens, then AI will outsmart us, and if intelligence got the ability to improve itself, humans would lose the autonomy. That will be a very horrible situation where humans would be replaced or killed by the robots to gain control over the planet. We will not be able to defeat or even hide from them. And if this happens then we are definitely going to be in trouble.

1.Unknown

Since the beginning of the humanity, we have discovered a lot of new things, and phenomenon happening around on the earth or in the space. And by time, our ability to understand the world has grown a lot. Like 120 years ago, people did not believed that aeroplane could be made and we could fly like birds. But now, it's common. Likewise, if something which is going to be discovered later, can not be imagined now. Similarly, if we encounter some global catastrophic event in the future, which we have not imagined and prepared, then it's surely gonna hit us so hard that we will be extinct. This would be one of the worst way of extinction, it may happen that we even don't get much time to even feel the fear.

So, these are the few most possible ways of human extinction. There are a lot more ways, humans could go extinct but once we are multiplanetary species, our chances of extinction will decrease greatly. That's why many people are thinking and acting towards making us multiplanetary.