Earth Wipeout

[rov1200]

What action, man-made or natural could destroy the whole of the inhabitants on Earth?

[mollykins]

I don't think very much that was man-made would wipe out everyone seeing as it would be hard to reach tribes living on remote islands or in the middle of a forest or desert etc. And the same would apply to any illness unless it could be spread between humans and animals that migrated a long way, to those remote tribes of people. Something like the asteroid that many believe wiped the dinosaurs out wouldn't do it, seeing as it obviously didn't kill everything so an asteroid would have to be even bigger than that.

Of course in a few billion years the sun will grow to a size that reaches way past earth, which would of course kill everyone.

[boxtops]

The sun flaring massively
Being hit by a huge asteroid
Mass nuclear explosions (fallout and pollution spread by the wind, molly)
Anything that knocked the earth off orbit

[jomifl]

god discovering that people worshipped it.

[JMR27]

The Yellowstone volcano erupting would have a big impact

[mollykins]

Oh yeah yellowstone national park is a supervolcanoe, I saw a documentary about it that said it would wipe everyone out when it errupts.

[sandyRoe]

For us the earth won't end with a bang but with a whimper.

[BillyBB]

Considering the Earth has been through the cataclysm of having a big chunk ripped off to form the moon and there is still life here, I think it would take a lot to sterilise our planet completely. If some microbe survived then a million years later a variety of organisms would be reproducing.
Plenty of time for a succession of different lifeforms to replace humans before the sun goes red.

[pcbpage]

a pandemic, a virus maybe - see 'Earth Abides,' written by George Stewart in 1949

[shikiraclare]

I agree with Pcbpage:

A pandemic virus would be the most credible cause, though another plausible reality would be a sudden rising of the oceans that enveloped all of humanity or a deadly shower of comets.

Some philosophers in the ancient world believed that the earth had a conscious system and would know when it is ready to expire, though more commonly, the vast majority of humanity are conventionally religious and believe that the invention of God will play his part in ending it all. Most eastern cultures though, are of the same opinion as the ancient philosophers and so according to them, it is how we treat the earth that matters as to the outcome of human existence in the immediate and long term future.

My personal belief is that there will be a culmination of different natural events. Just because the earth has been around for some billions of years, does not guarantee anything and galaxies are exploding all the time, so why should ours be any different?
We are more likely to get struck by an asteroid than a nuclear war outbreak when weapons are expensive commodities and humanity has proved that they can survive even these kinds of attacks because poulation growth is far too large in the modern world to be that easily eradicated en-masse.

[MarkRae]

Do you think that, on the assumption that we don't blow ourselves to pieces and the cosmos leaves us alone for a few hundred / thousand years, we will eventually develop the technology to travel to other planetary systems where we will find evidence of civilisations who have destroyed themselves...?

[Answerprancer]

Well the scare about increased solar activity is a load of old balony according to my friend who works for NASA - one of his colleagues is also one of the world's top authorities on this matter.