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

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...