7 ms·

> Heck, I don't think we could even wipe out humanity - or even civilization You are talking about global warming and the like, right? There's another possibil

> Heck, I don't think we could even wipe out humanity - or even civilization You are talking about global warming and the like, right? There's another possibility, and it involves nuclear weapons. THOSE can sterilize the planet many times over.

_Microft 7y ago
No, surprisingly not. There's life in places that even nukes won't reach. Example: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01490451.2019.1641770?journalCode=ugmb20 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01490451.2019.16...
shkkmo 7y ago
While we MIGHT be able to wipe humanity off the planet with nuclear weapons [0] and would certainly create a mass extinction event, it is extremely unlikely we would be able to sterilize the earth. Even if we somehow manage to wipe out all multi-cellular life (which would, at a minimum, require completely vaporizing our oceans to expose deep ocean vents), it would take massively more destruction to wipe out all single celled life on the planet (which would likely require removing the entire planet's crust.) [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_holocaust#Likelihood_of_complete_human_extinction https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_holocaust#Likelihood_o...
beat 7y ago
Yes, I'm talking about global warming and other environmental damage, not nuclear war. But we're a long, long ways off from nuclear war being able to sterilize the planet. I don't think nuclear war could even end civilization - there are too many countries not in the nuclear club who probably wouldn't be targets in a nuclear war. Would someone bother to nuke, say, Copenhagen? Or Cairo? Or Bangkok? Or the entire South American continent? I can't even think of nuclear targets in the southern hemisphere, which would be somewhat isolated from fallout etc as well thanks to distance and equatorial weather patterns.

7 ms·

> Heck, I don't think we could even wipe out humanity - or even civilization You are talking about global warming and the like, right? There's another possibil

by outworlder 7y ago

_Microft 7y ago
No, surprisingly not. There's life in places that even nukes won't reach. Example: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01490451.2019.1641770?journalCode=ugmb20 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01490451.2019.16...
shkkmo 7y ago
While we MIGHT be able to wipe humanity off the planet with nuclear weapons [0] and would certainly create a mass extinction event, it is extremely unlikely we would be able to sterilize the earth. Even if we somehow manage to wipe out all multi-cellular life (which would, at a minimum, require completely vaporizing our oceans to expose deep ocean vents), it would take massively more destruction to wipe out all single celled life on the planet (which would likely require removing the entire planet's crust.) [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_holocaust#Likelihood_of_complete_human_extinction https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_holocaust#Likelihood_o...
beat 7y ago
Yes, I'm talking about global warming and other environmental damage, not nuclear war. But we're a long, long ways off from nuclear war being able to sterilize the planet. I don't think nuclear war could even end civilization - there are too many countries not in the nuclear club who probably wouldn't be targets in a nuclear war. Would someone bother to nuke, say, Copenhagen? Or Cairo? Or Bangkok? Or the entire South American continent? I can't even think of nuclear targets in the southern hemisphere, which would be somewhat isolated from fallout etc as well thanks to distance and equatorial weather patterns.