Which is a greater threat to human survival?

[El Pinko]

Okay, obviously, the human race will eventually die out like every other species - it's only a matter of time.

Space travel on the order necessary to take us to distant habitable words is a physical impossibility, and terraforming Mars would take so much time and money and would still not make Mars a hospitable place, even if it worked - Cleaning up the mess we've made on earth would be far cheaper and more practical, and there is simply no practical or logical way of moving billions of people off-world, so we're stuck with Earth.

It may be that if humanity survives this century, it will survive for tens of thousands of years, because it will have finally learned to control its population and live in better harmony with the earth, but until that time, it looks a bit touch and go.


So what is the greatest threat to our survival as a species in the next 100 years?

[GoneOffShore]

1. Other - Human indifference

[dawgman]

2. I chose climate change but I think answers 1 3 and 4 all tie in to

that issue.

[Mabus]

9. Same here

The climate crisis has far reaching consequences that will be responsible for and compound many of the problems.

[bean fidhleir]

19. Likewise. We cannot physically survive climate changes beyond a certain point

That's what Hawking is worried about. It won't matter how much food or anything else we have if it's 150F out because no mammal or bird can live at that temperature.

So our most important tasks are to detoxify our ruinous lifestyles immediately AND reduce the population overload without killing people, since both are driving climate degradation.

[MH1]

3. Our inclination to war plus the ability to use nuclear weapons.

The other things may very well severely reduce the population but I don't believe they will result in species death. Well, maybe some disease will, but I think nuclear war is more likely to do it.

[ixion]

4. Nature is the greatest threat, followed closely by humans themselves

imo...

[Arctic Dave]

5. Tough choice, we are inclined to be done by just about all of them.

Good day to you EP, haven't seen you around in a few.

[El Pinko]

11. Thanks - I have a new job that keeps me pretty busy.

Can't complain. I've got a job that pays better than what I had a year ago - that's better than a lot of folks can say right now...

[Arctic Dave]

12. Good for you. Thats good news.

[leftofthedial]

6. many of those are related problems

climate change, population effects, impacts on food supply, natural catastrophes, war . . . you left off diminishing water supply.

many of those spring from overpopulation and scarcity of resources

[underpants]

7. Attack of the killer tomatoes

:scared:

[ElsewheresDaughter]

8. 2,1 and 3 in that order with 4 as the evil engine

[Subdivisions]

10. None of the above. Declining oil production will not only trump

all of those causes in the severity of effects on human life, it will CAUSE some of them.

[Speck Tater]

14. I certainly agree that oil depletion means the end of

OUR version of civilization.

But I don't think it means the end of the human race, or of civilization in some form. After all, famed Russian composer Tchaikovsky traveled from his native Russia to New York city to conduct the premiere opening night concert at the grand opening of Carnegie Hall. This gala event took place BEFORE the advent of the modern age of petroleum. So if that level of civilization was possible BEFORE petroleum, then SOME level of civilization will certainly be possible AFTER petroleum.

[Speck Tater]

13. Why I picked #1 instead of #2

Growing population is a threat, to be sure. But it does not threaten he very survival of the human race. It only threatens the survival of some percentage of the human race. It might be as severe as HALF the human race dying of starvation. But then the other half would survive.

Global climate change, on the other hand, if it get completely out of control threatens the entire human race.

Starvation brought on by population overshoot will certainly reduce our numbers, perhaps even drastically, but global warming could cause the whole species to go extinct.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

15. Our survival as a species is a matter of indifference to nature.

I find it a bit ironic that our "big brains", of which we are so proud, will probably be the engines of our extinction.

Meanwhile the "stupid" cockroaches, and even stupider earthworms, will be feasting on them

[On the Road]

16. In Terms of the Next Hundred Years,

our survival as a species is only threated by sudden events with a 100% death rate.

Global warming, overpopulation, food production, and pollution are much milder threats and whatever the human costs very unlikely to wipe out the species.

Most likely to be effective would be a planet-wide natural disaster, although even a supervolcano or the comet that killed the dinosaurs would likely leave a small population. Same with nuclear war -- even a massive nuclear exchange that killed 5 billion people would leave 1 billion. A pandemic of ebola, Marburg, or some other deadly contagious disease is very possible, although there are some remote populations unlikely to be affected. Even a host of European diseases didn't kill the native American populations entirely -- 5-10% survived.

So, the threats are not to the species itself. It's to some fraction of the six billion people alive today, or more likely to our quality of life.

[defendandprotect]

17. I voted for the first, but actually its male desire to dominate, control - suicidal ---

It's Global Warming . . . keep the heat in it . . . it makes it clearer . . .
and it's been "Global Warming" since the 1950's when models of it were first introduced ---

TRAPPED HEAT --

Heating the atmosphere creates chaotic conditions ---

Actually, it's the violent impulses of human males that will kill us --
the desire to dominate and control nature and other human beings.
It's a kind of suicidal insanity.

All of these conditions are related to that ---

[scarletwoman]

18. The greatest threat to human survival is the Owner Class -- the tiny percentage of the population

that grasps for power over all the rest of us, and whose greed for reaping massive profits from the exploitation of our planet's resources endangers the life support systems of all life everywhere.

sw