What is Mankind’s greatest peril?
People have different answers to that question, but which is the correct answer?
What follows are possibilities of what imperils Mankind the most.
#1 The Sun’s Death
From NBC News, 08 May 2018: “New research by an international team of astronomers shows that once it exhausts its hydrogen fuel in 5 billion years or so, our host star will morph into an enormous ring of glowing dust and gas — what astronomers call a planetary nebula.”
#2 The Sun Getting Brighter
From Phys.org:
“Life on the planet will run into trouble well before the planet itself disintegrates. Even before the sun finishes burning hydrogen, it will have changed from its present state. The sun has been increasing its brightness by about 10% every billion years it spends burning hydrogen. Increased brightness means an increase in the amount of heat our planet receives. As the planet heats up, the water on the surface of our planet will begin to evaporate.
An increase of the sun’s luminosity by 10% over the current level doesn’t sound like a whole lot, but this small change in our star’s brightness will be pretty catastrophic for our planet. This change is a sufficient increase in energy to change the location of the habitable zone around our star. The habitable zone is defined as the range of distances away from any given star where liquid water can be stable on the surface of a planet.
With a 10% increase of brightness from our star, the Earth will no longer be within the habitable zone. This will mark the beginning of the evaporation of our oceans. By the time the sun stops burning hydrogen in its core, Mars will be in the habitable zone, and the Earth will be much too hot to maintain water on its surface.
. . . The Earth is a complex system – and no model is perfect. However, it seems likely that we have no more than a billion years left for life to thrive on our planet.”
#3 Asteroid Striking Earth
From the Washington Post, 19 March 2018:
From Space.com, 02 August 2016:
#4 Plague
From Science Daily, 27 January 2014:
#5 Milankovitch Cycles
From http://ossfoundation.us:
From the Associated Press, 27 August 2018:
From the University of Wisconsin, 06 September 2018:
#6 Massive Volcano Eruptions
From the U.S. Geological Survey:
“Several eruptions during the past century have caused a decline in the average temperature at the Earth’s surface of up to half a degree (Fahrenheit scale) for periods of one to three years. The climactic eruption of Mount Pinatubo on June 15, 1991, was one of the largest eruptions of the twentieth century and injected a 20-million ton (metric scale) sulfur dioxide cloud into the stratosphere at an altitude of more than 20 miles.
The Pinatubo cloud was the largest sulfur dioxide cloud ever observed in the stratosphere since the beginning of such observations by satellites in 1978. It caused what is believed to be the largest aerosol disturbance of the stratosphere in the twentieth century, though probably smaller than the disturbances from eruptions of Krakatau in 1883 and Tambora in 1815. Consequently, it was a standout in its climate impact and cooled the Earth’s surface for three years following the eruption, by as much as 1.3 degrees F at the height of the impact.
The large 1783-1784 Laki fissure eruption in Iceland released a staggering amount more sulfur dioxide than Pinatubo (approximately 120-million ton vs. 20). Although the two eruptions were significantly different in length and style, the added atmospheric SO2 caused regional cooling of Europe and North America by similar amounts for similar periods of time.”
#7 Growing scarcity of needed natural resources
Would nations go to war in order to obtain natural resources that they depend on?
Answer: Absolutely.
The growing scarcity of needed natural resources is a topic that will be covered more in another post.
Anyway, Mankind’s greatest peril may not be easily determined.
Featured Image Source: Wikimedia Commons
