The End of the World

This is a response to the article on the Foreign Policy website that I read here.

This weekend I made sure to see the new apocalyptical movie 2012. I waited in line for a 9:40 showing for the 2 hour 38 minute long film in order to get entertained with overly dramatic and highly implausible scenes of the world self-destroying. I was let down, but who doesn't love big budget movies where destruction occurs for the entire movie?

In the Foreign Policy article Joshua Keating talked about five possible scenarios for the end of humanity.

1. Asteroid

Large population threatening asteroids hit about once every two million years, so the chances of this happening are extremely unlikely. But, if an asteroid were to hit Earth, there would be little we could do to stop it.

2. Global Warming

This is the most likely scenario in our lifetime. By the end of the century if carbon emissions are substantially decreased civilization could see the flooding of coastal regions, 1/3 of the Earth being covered in desert and the death of 40-70% of species of animals.

3. Nuclear War

With countries like North Korea and Iran trying to build nuclear weapons, the chances of nuclear war are relatively high. A war between two nuclear superpowers like the U.S. and Russia would leave a lot of dust and smoke behind, which would raise global temperatures, cause a change in precipitation patterns and lead to a huge drought.

4. Plague

Plagues like the Bubonic Plague, the flu pandemic of 1918 and the recent swine flu outbreak are all examples of past and current diseases that have and could wreak havoc on society. Despite big leaps in medicine, the diseases develop just as fast.

5. The Unknown Unknown

There are a huge range of events that could lead to the apocalypse. Natural (giant volcanoes, deadly emissions from stars) and manmade (famine, deadly new technology). The sun is expected to destroy the Earth in 5-8 billion years, but it is unlikely that mankind would survive to see that day.

Exploring man's destructive tendencies without the imminent weight of the apocalypse pressing down on us is an easy way to think about how we might all die. But, depending on your view of the effects of global warming, the apocalypse may be imminent. Also, the fact that a blockbuster movie just came out about the end of the civilization makes this discussion more relevant.

In a way more massive scale, the drastically changing world during the apocalypse is similar to the way France underwent an upheaval and change of society during the French Revolution. I would also argue that the Haitian Revolution saw more of a change than the French Revolution because it was the first completely successful slave revolution, and slaves were much lower on the societal ladder than the Third Estate.