• Question: Who will end the planet first? The sun expanding, humans or natural disasters?

    Asked by Ayrton to Ed, Kerrianne, Nina, Oli, yoyehudi on 6 Nov 2017. This question was also asked by 865nepk42, 728nepk47.
    • Photo: Oli Wilson

      Oli Wilson answered on 6 Nov 2017:

      In terms of ending our own time on the planet, I reckon it’ll be humans making natural disasters worse through things like climate change. If we’re thinking about ending all life on Earth, then I reckon it’ll be natural disasters like asteroids hitting. The Sun won’t expand past Earth for another 5 billion years or so (for context, Earth is only around 4.5 billion years old), and I reckon that’s plenty of time for some massive disaster to strike! There was a mass extinction event called The Great Dying about 252 million years ago and it may have led to the extinction of up to 96% of the species alive before it – we’re not really sure what caused it, but a couple of those in quick succession would be tricky..!

    • Photo: Kerrianne Harrington

      Kerrianne Harrington answered on 6 Nov 2017:

      I agree with Oli. Ultimately, I think it will be humans.

    • Photo: Yo Yehudi

      Yo Yehudi answered on 6 Nov 2017:

      Hmmm. Taking this question on the strictest of terms, even if human beings end up extinct or we end up wrecking the environment, the planet itself will still be here, so it has to be the sun.

      I really hope we (humans) don’t ruin the planet! 🙁

    • Photo: Ed Bracey

      Ed Bracey answered on 6 Nov 2017:

      I agree with Oli, it’s us.

      Stephen Hawking thinks we’ll cause disasters through things like climate change, overpopulation, nuclear fallout, antibiotic resistance or the artificial intelligence we build will come to get us.

      We kind of suck as a species!

      This is why we need all of you to become scientists and world leaders to help us solve all the mess the previous generations before us have gotten us in to!

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