• Question: Do you think that one day the human race will be extincted? Why?

    Asked by SMACD to Anais, katy, Lauren, Richard, Stuart on 11 Mar 2016.
    • Photo: Lauren Laing

      Lauren Laing answered on 11 Mar 2016:

      Some scientists think that by 2100 humans will be extinct. Some people think that nuclear war could cause the extinction of humans, or a nearby supernova explosion might strip the Earth of its ozone layer, allowing penetration of UV rays!! Other theories include: the spread of a disease which we cannot cure, ecological collapse, climate change, nanotechnology accidents AND emerging technologies could bring about new extinction scenarios, such as advanced artificial intelligence or self-replicating nanobots.

      These all seem crazy and farfetched! I think we just won’t know until it happens, I dont think it will happen for a very very long time yet, but it will probably happen one day. Unless we can colonies other planets, then one day there will be too many people on this earth to feed. In fact, some people argue we already have too many, this is called overpopulation.

    • Photo: Richard Friend

      Richard Friend answered on 11 Mar 2016:

      Eventually, yes. What we do know is that at some point the sun will expand to the point that the earth is engulfed and won’t exist as a planet any more. Whether we’re still around at that point is the question! We might have gone to a different part of the galaxy by then!

    • Photo: Anais Kahve

      Anais Kahve answered on 11 Mar 2016:

      Yes, I think that one day the human race will be extinct. How exactly this will happen though, I really don’t know. There might be a really long ice age then we might not be able to survive or the effects of global warming might mean that we won’t be able to grow enough crops because of drought or even flooding.

    • Photo: Stuart Atkinson

      Stuart Atkinson answered on 14 Mar 2016:

      I think in the future humans will face similar problems to those they have always faced – famine, disease, war, environmental disasters. Maybe some will be more extreme and maybe humanity will be brought close to extinction by some of them. However, the human race has a history of ingenuity and of inventing solutions, so I have faith that despite everything else, it will prevail in some form. As for the sun expanding and engulfing the Earth, if people have not gone off into space by then and settled on other planets, something will be seriously wrong!!!

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