No one really considers how long we will last, or when life on Earth will cease to be, but we should. Here are some ways humanity and life on Earth itself may end.

Disclaimer:

Some of these are backed up by science and actual proof, but a few of these are just conspiracy theories. Not all of these are likely to happen.

I decided to write about these because I realized that nearly everyone thinks that the sun is going to explode and I wanted to find out what is really going to happen. 

That eventually led to learning a lot more than I realized.

Now hopefully you’ll learn more about Earth too.

Drastic climate change and/or pollution:  

While humans will probably not have to live underwater, climate change can cause our downfall. 

For one thing, there’s an average global temperature. Scientists predict that when we reach a global average temperature of 2 degrees Celsius, climate disasters, such as abnormally large and common hurricanes, forest fires, extreme heat, and droughts, which will happen all the time, everywhere.

Considering the temperature now is above 1.5 degrees, that´s a little scary. 

However, in my opinion, I think that there are already climate disasters happening, so it won’t really be that bad. Also, if there are a lot of climate disasters, they will probably just decimate the world population, not kill us out entirely.

Eventually, pollution will get into crops. 

Then we´ll have a really large global food shortage, and it will end us and probably all other life on this planet.

What about everyone going into rockets in space like in Wall-E?

There aren’t enough resources for that. According to Randall Munroe, an internet cartoonist who used to work for NASA (National Aeronautics  and Space Administration) in his book “What if?”, it will take just five percent of the world’s energy consumption to lift the population into space, but that’s not counting other things like rocket weight, food and water, or pets. If humans are already on food or energy shortages, we will never be able to supply for a long space trip. 

Most people would never be able to afford it anyway (the average cost for orbital space travel is 20 to 50 million), and we´d destroy the planet, so there’s no way this could happen if the planet was already destroyed.

Maybe we should either start preparing now or just die on Earth.

If we avoid the above: 

Somehow, through recycling, clean energy, and turning off the lights, let’s say we avoid the disasters mentioned above.

Eventually the sun is going to run out of hydrogen. (https://askanearthspacescientist.asu.edu/top-question/sun-dying)

 When that happens in about five billion years, the sun will go through these death phases that last two to three billion years. 

Then, the Sun will swell, swallowing the three closest planets to it (That includes us! Yay!)

To summarize what happens next, the sun will get big, then small, then become a kind of star that puts off no energy, called a black dwarf star.

Wait, what about the supernova and black hole stuff? That’s the cool part!

Sorry, our sun is never going to get that big. And we might not even live for that long.

The sun is expanding, just like it may do when it dies. Eventually it might swallow up the earth, although evidence from solar winds suggests that won’t happen.

Why don’t we just turn off the sun to completely avoid that?

That should be on the list of dumbest questions in the universe, but there are actually some more pros to that; no solar flares, cheaper trade, and safer combat pilots.

However, there is this one tiny downside— we would all freeze and die.

That’s not the end of it though. 

We could die from an asteroid, like the dinosaurs.

While it is less likely because only a very large asteroid could kill all life, it could happen. 

However, large asteroids only hit about every 100 million years.

Deoxidization:

In a mass extinction 450 million years ago, oxygen levels dropped, and scientists don’t know how this happened. (https://www.astronomy.com/science/how-will-life-on-earth-end)

Recently, climate change has reduced the oceans’ oxygen, killing off marine life. 

If this happens again, we’d have no preparation to combat it, so no one would be safe.

Other reasons:

Some things could happen that seem really unlikely, like Artificial Intelligence (AI) could get way smarter than us and we could be killed by robots. Aliens could invade at any time. A small planet could get off orbit and set fire to Earth (I came up with this myself! I’m so smart!)

There are countless other reasons. Just more unlikely ones.

Conclusion:

Okay, now maybe you’re nervous. 

Most of these won’t happen for a billion years!

By then we might have found a way to stop them. Or not . . .

Who knows? We might’ve figured out immortality by then (I wouldn’t want that, though).

Maybe the planet’s life will end tomorrow! 

So, hopefully, you´ll be nicer to people if you know they might not exist tomorrow. (looking at nobody in particular)

Because the world might end soon.