• Question: could the earth be destroyed by humans

    Asked by 582bera34 to Colin, John, Kevin, Shikha, Triona on 11 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Colin Johnston

      Colin Johnston answered on 11 Nov 2014:

      We could today if we wanted to destroy all life on Earth, if we deliberately planned how to do it (probably by detonating hundred of cobalt 60 bombs which release horrific radioactive fallout). That is is very unlikely.

      We could, if we are really stupid and don’t reduce our ecological footprint, cause the greatest mass extinction in the planet’s history.

      What we cannot do with any feasible technology is destroy, as in smash to pieces, our planet. Our planet has a mass of about 6 000 000 ooo ooo 000 000 000 tonnes. It is possible to work out how much energy it would take to blow up the Earth (lift every kilogramme of the earth into space) and the answer is huge (about 2 followed by 26 zeroes joules of energy).This is enormous, it would take the whole Sun about ten days to produce as much energy. I’m happy we would be able to blow up our planet anytime soon.

    • Photo: Shikha Sharma

      Shikha Sharma answered on 12 Nov 2014:

      Hi 528bera34,
      Rapid and uncontrolled modernization of human civilization is actually affecting natural environment of the earth which is the only known planet suitable for life in entire observable universe. We can list down several human activities which is continuously creating imbalance in earth’s eco-system. Some of these are (a) high consumption of natural but limited resources e.g. fossil oil & coal; (b) emission of greenhouse gases causing depletion of ozone layer e.g. Co2; (c) rapid deforestation; (c) mountain top removal for mining; (d) artificial control on movement of water stream (e.g. dam on river); (e) toxic industrial waste; (f) usage of pesticides in agriculture and many many more. All these are causing significant ecological imbalance leading to extinction species, global warming, destruction of ozone layer, loss of bio-diversity etc. Our mother nature has enormous power of absorbing all damages and still continues to support our life. However, if we continue our quest of modernization at the cost of nature, nature will rebound back and wipe out traces of human and other forms of life in future. Earth will continue to be there but without living creatures like other dead planet.

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