• Question: Do you think that the human race will die of a virus or of a more uncommon death like a nutron star , deforestation or heat/ temperature. I am a big finatic of space so I'm hoping it would be more on the lines of a sun disaster... How ever any way it will be unpleasant. Thank you for you answer your thankfully, Oscar (year 9)

    Asked by Oscar Willmott to ☣ Danna, Lindsay, Juan, Jonny, Daniela ? on 15 Jun 2016.
    • Photo: Juan Ortiz

      Juan Ortiz answered on 15 Jun 2016:

      Oscar, it is difficult to predict. I believe a climate change or a virus could drastically reduce the human population. However, we are a lot of people so I consider unlikely that a total extinction would happen in these cases
      In the other hand, an astrological disaster like a big asteroid impacting the Earth could cause our extinction, but that is not going to happen in the near future, since the NASA has a department specialised in looking for objects approaching to our planet and nothing big enough to be dangerous can be detected.

      As for the solar storm, in 1859 there was the biggest solar storm ever reported and apparently there was a magnificent aurora borealis. However, people weren’t affected by that. Nowadays, this would have a bigger impact because our society is dependent on technology. Nevertheless it seems unlikely that this would kill us.

    • Photo: Jonathan Hunter

      Jonathan Hunter answered on 15 Jun 2016:

      I agree with Juan! Our way of life may be changed drastically by some of the things you have suggested but I don’t think we will become extinct (hopefully not anyway).

    • Photo: Daniela Lobo

      Daniela Lobo answered on 15 Jun 2016:

      Hi Oscar,
      I agree with Juan – although any of these things could potentially happen, in order to cause total and immediate extinction seems unlikely. Humans have a remarkable capacity to adapt, so unless a truly catastrophic and unpredictable event would take place, we will still be around. What could happen is a more “by steps” catastrophe that could maybe lead to exctintion if seen as an extreme – for example, if our food chain is completely compromised, if the have contamination in our drinkable water, if the ozone layer is completely destroyed, these things might be a long-term issue for the human race.

    • Photo: Danna Gifford

      Danna Gifford answered on 17 Jun 2016:

      I think that a very virulent infection could cause a pandemic that could severely reduce human population size. There have been examples in the past, like the Black Death and the 1918 Spanish flu, only now people travel a lot more so it would be more likely to spread. Luckily we have antibiotics, advanced medical care, and understand how diseases spread so that we could take care of the sick, as long as not too many people get sick all at the same time.

    • Photo: Lindsay Robinson

      Lindsay Robinson answered on 18 Jun 2016:

      Hi Oscar. I don’t think we’ll all die out from a disease. I agree with Danna that as long as we don’t all get sick at once, then we’ll be fine. I think we’ll probably be made extinct after an asteroid strike. I don’t think there’s much we could do about that so I don’t spend much time worrying about it ?

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