Top 10 Ways to Destroy Earth ... Discuss

See http://tinyurl.com/8shs7 for the full story.

Quoting ...


Destroying the Earth is harder than you may have been led to believe.

You've seen the action movies where the bad guy threatens to destroy
the Earth. You've heard people on the news claiming that the next
nuclear war or cutting down rainforests or persisting in releasing
hideous quantities of pollution into the atmosphere threatens to end
the world.

Fools.

The Earth was built to last. It is a 4,550,000,000-year-old,
5,973,600,000,000,000,000,000-tonne ball of iron. It has taken more
devastating asteroid hits in its lifetime than you've had hot dinners,
and lo, it still orbits merrily.

Go to the List

Editor's Note: This presentation was first published by Sam Hughes on
his own web site. Hughes' version is a living document that he updates
as new information becomes available. This adapted version on
LiveScience is presented with permission. We encourage you to check out
Hughes' site for the latest on this topic, as well as additional
methods he puts on a "less scientifically probable" list, plus a list
of natural ways that the Earth might cease to exist. He also provides
source information, reader comments, and links to related material.

So my first piece of advice to you, dear would-be Earth-destroyer, is:
do not think this will be easy.

Mission statement

By any means necessary, to render the Earth into a form in which it may
no longer be considered a planet. Such forms include, but are most
definitely not limited to: two or more planets; any number of smaller
asteroids; a quantum singularity; a dust cloud.

To make the list, a method must actually work. That is, according to
current scientific understanding, it must be possible for the Earth to
actually be destroyed by this method, however improbable or impractical
it may be.

Methods are ranked in order of feasibility, with the least likely
listed first and the most likely being No. 10.

Current Earth-destruction Status

* Number of times the Earth has been destroyed: 0
* Number of plans currently in progress with the final aim of
bringing about the Earth's destruction: 0
* Number of scientific experiments currently underway with the
potential to bring about the Earth's destruction: 0
* Minimum amount of time until the Earth is destroyed by natural
means (discounting total existence failure): 25 years
* Minimum amount of time until the Earth is destroyed by artificial
means: 50 years

...

Destroying the Earth is harder than you may have been led to believe.

You've seen the action movies where the bad guy threatens to destroy
the Earth. You've heard people on the news claiming that the next
nuclear war or cutting down rainforests or persisting in releasing
hideous quantities of pollution into the atmosphere threatens to end
the world.

C'mon, the premise isn't that the Earth will end, it's that human life
will end.

Destroying the Earth is harder than you may have been led to believe.

You've seen the action movies where the bad guy threatens to destroy
the Earth. You've heard people on the news claiming that the next
nuclear war or cutting down rainforests or persisting in releasing
hideous quantities of pollution into the atmosphere threatens to end
the world.

C'mon, the premise isn't that the Earth will end, it's that human life
will end.

wrote:

Destroying the Earth is harder than you may have been led to believe.

You've seen the action movies where the bad guy threatens to destroy
the Earth. You've heard people on the news claiming that the next
nuclear war or cutting down rainforests or persisting in releasing
hideous quantities of pollution into the atmosphere threatens to end
the world.

C'mon, the premise isn't that the Earth will end, it's that human life
will end.

Yes, the premise IS that the Earth will end.

It is reassuring to know that it is sufficiently difficult to end the
Earth that under such a scenario, the Earth might go but a ' seed ' of
humanity might get off the rock in time !

RL

wrote:

Destroying the Earth is harder than you may have been led to believe.

You've seen the action movies where the bad guy threatens to destroy
the Earth. You've heard people on the news claiming that the next
nuclear war or cutting down rainforests or persisting in releasing
hideous quantities of pollution into the atmosphere threatens to end
the world.

C'mon, the premise isn't that the Earth will end, it's that human life
will end.

Nope! See http://tinyurl.com/c5q5q for a more recent commentry on the
subject.

RL

.... follow-ups set to include [sci.physics,sci.physics.particle] as
well