End of the World

The article I read was about the most likely causes to bring the end of humanity in the world. While fortunately, none of these are likely to happen in any of our lifetimes, they could very well happen in the next million years or so. This was probably written as a response to the new movie 2012. which is about the "end of the world." The Mayan calendar suddenly stops on December 21, 2012, (12/21/12) and many (crazy) people believe that the world will end on this day.

Joshua Keating gave five possibilities for the end of the world: an asteroid, climate disaster, nuclear war, a plague, and unknown causes. His thesis is that any of these events could happen , but they are highly unlikely during our lifetime.

An asteroid probably will not happen while we are alive because they only come once or twice every million years. Also, to create any substantial worldwide damage, it would have to be 15 km.

Climate Disaster is the most likely out of all of these to happen because it is already a problem in the world. However, people probably will have found alternative energy sources by the time it gets to be a problem.

Nuclear War: This could happen in our lifetime because if countries with nuclear weapons like Iran or North Korea got into a serious conflict, the effects could be grave.

Plague: There have been many plagues during the course of humanity, most notably the black plague and the current swine flu outbreak. Unfortunately, the diseases harm people faster than a cure can be made.

Unknown
There can be unknown natural or man made causes that could destroy the world like a supervolcano or a gamma ray burst from a star.