Posted:
When people speak of the end of the world, they are most often speaking of the end of the human species. (Various religions have their own ideas of how the world will end.) Humans have been on this planet for a short time compared to many other species. Although the dinosaurs became extinct, they did last some 40 odd million years, and some people would point out that the birds are still here and they are only evolved dinosaurs! It was only about 2 million years ago, our homonid ancestors came down from the trees. We might as a species wipe ourselves out but life is likely to continue on this planet - and intelligence might or might not evolve in other species. (It has after all developed to some extent in dolphins/whales, the great apes and certain species of birds for example.)
To wipe out life on this planet is IMO going to take an event like a Gamma-Ray burst from another star nearby, or a large meteoric impact of the sort that formed the moon when Thea collided with the early Earth. Anything short of that might well make humans extinct but some hardier species might survive and go on to colonise the Earth. The less severe the disaster, the greater the chance of a few humans surviving. Would you still classify this as the end of the world?
So please share your ideas about how you think the world will end?
Anupamaa
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