Threats

Global Threats

Here's a list of threats to the planet. More information will be added for each.

Asteroid Impact

Could we have another big asteroid like the one that they believe killed the dinosaurs? They say asteroids can create so much dust that the sun would be blocked for months or maybe years, similar to a nuclear winter. And if an asteroid hits in certain places, the dust can be toxic or poisonous due to the minerals in the rocks.

Comet Impact

A comet is like an asteroid, but it moves much faster because it's falling from the outer solar system. Being mostly ice, it might tend to explode in the atmosphere like the fireballs at Tunguska and Chelyabinsk. Some theorize that the Great Chicago fire was caused by a comet because some saw a fireball and the fire was said to look unusual.

Supervolcano

If the supervolcano under Yellowstone erupts, it could put a layer of ash on top of about half the U.S., killing the crops in a region that produces a significant amount of the world's food, thus probably causing a famine in addition to a lot of other problems. Dust from volcanoes can block sunlight, and a supervolcano could put more dust in the atmosphere than nuclear war, creating something akin to nuclear winter.

EMP

A nuclear explosion in the atmosphere can create a high voltage radio pulse that destroys most electronics. Any cords, wires, or antennae will pick up thousands of volts which will destroy your unprotected electronics.

Nuclear War / WW3

Many people don't expect to survive it, but I think it's quite possible to survive nuclear war and carry on. Those who expect to die probably will, but those who want to try to survive can do many things to protect themselves from the dangers. Imagine learning what to do now instead of assuming it's pointless to try to survive WW3. If you can survive a couple of weeks of radioactive fallout, reduced sunlight due to smoke and dust in the atmosphere for weeks or months, potential societal chaos, potential release of bioweapons intentionally or accidentally.

Biological Weapons

How long until bioweapons are accidentally or intentionally released that can kill a large percentage of people? I'd better take my vitamin C.

Natural Outbreaks

With the cheap travel available in modern times, a new strain of infectious virus or bacterium can travel around the world to many countries in a matter of hours or days.

Famine

They say we're nine missed meals away from anarchy, meaning people will do anything for food when they're starving. You'll probably see looting and home invasions as people try to find food. Will people resort to cannibalism?

Runaway Greenhouse Effect

The idea is that global warming causes more water vapor in the atmosphere, which causes more global warming. And the methane ice on the seafloor gets too warm and starts to bubble up, increasing the methane levels in the atmosphere, increasing the greenhouse effect even more. We probably couldn't turn into Venus, but some think that a mass extinction or two in the Earth's history might have been caused by this effect.

Ice Age

Ice ages are more common in Earth's history than interglacial warm periods like the one we're in now. If the Earth goes into an ice age, it probably won't be able to support the current global population.

AI Takeover / War with the Machines

Think Terminator. With the recent advances in AI, it's starting to look much more possible.

Gray Goo

Nanotechnology goes out of control and consumes everything.

Nearby Supernova

They used to say a supernova within 50 lightyears could be dangerous. Now 160. It isn't known how many white dwarf stars might be within this range, but they estimate a few hundred, any of which could cause a type I supernova at any time.

Being Pulled Into a Different Orbit

If a massive body, such as a black hole, a brown dwarf, or a rogue gas giant planet, passes through the inner solar system, the Earth could be pulled into a different orbit, changing our climate and seasons.

Solar Instability

Our Sun is fairly stable, but many stars are not. Could our Sun go nuts and increase or decrease output or become variable? I think I recall hearing in the 1990s that the sun started emitting bluer light, but AI doesn't know what I'm talking about.

Sun Blocked

If our solar system collides with a cloud of gas or dust, the Sun could be blocked. Or alien robots could come and make a Dyson sphere of our Sun, blocking most or all of its light from reaching the Earth.

Regional & Local Threats

Hurricanes

Eastern North Carolina sticks out a little into the Atlantic Ocean in an area where hurricanes often pass, so it's a bit vulnerable. Rocky Mount is not a coastal city, it's far inland. I wish we were closer to the beach, because it's probably a couple of hours' drive away. But we sometimes receive a lot of rainfall from hurricanes. Local residents, especially those living and working in low-lying areas, should try to be prepared for hurricane conditions, especially flash flooding. Hurricane Floyd in the late 1990s was a big disaster for low-lying parts of Rocky Mount. My mother and her mother had to flee flooding from Floyd and lost a lot of stuff.

Tornadoes

Preparing for a tornado means preparing for extreme winds. A tornado swarm can create dozens or hundreds of tornadoes across a region.

Tsunami

It would have to be a huge tsunami to make it far enough inland to reach Rocky Mount. A tsunami on the east coast might be caused by an earthquake in the Atlantic Ocean or a meteor impact.

Race War

Rocky Mount has a bit of racial tension sometimes. I've wondered if this could be the place where a race war begins. But it seems fairly peaceful lately. It's a diverse community, and we mostly get along, but there are some who seem to like trouble.