Scenarios of the destruction of the Earth or the apocalypse are often depicted in disaster-themed films. Although the film is just fiction, scientifically there are a number of conditions that can support the events that occur in the film's scenes.
Compiled by us from Science Alert, here are some science-based apocalypse scenarios. At least, there are nine pictures of the destruction of human civilization from this estimate.
1. Global warming
Global warming can cause political instability, severe droughts, famine, ecosystem collapse, and other changes that make Earth a very inhospitable place to live. Therefore, it is natural that many scientists are echoing the issue of global warming.
2. Asteroids
In fiction films, it often shows the destruction of the Earth due to a collision with an asteroid. Scientifically, this is possible. This planet was hit by an asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs. History also records the Tunguska event, the fall of a meteoroid that scorched 2,000 square kilometers of Siberian forest in 1908.
3. Pandemic
New deadly pathogens emerge every year, starting from SARS, bird flu, MERS, and what we are experiencing right now, SARS-CoV-2, the cause of the deadly COVID-19 that claimed millions of lives worldwide. Because of our highly interconnected global economy, deadly diseases can spread rapidly.
4. Mushrooms
"The Earth has a new amphibian fungal disease that is having a devastating effect," said David Wake, curator at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at the University of California, Berkeley of the chytrid fungus that once wiped out frogs across the United States.
Fungus that is just as fatal to humans can be catastrophic, even in spite of deadly bacteria and antibiotics abound. The reason is, we know very little about the treatment of fungal infections when compared to diseases caused by viruses and bacteria.
5. Disease engineering
The war is predicted to no longer revolve around attacking each other and taking up arms. There is a more serious threat that could destroy the Earth aka the apocalypse with an engineered disease.
In 2011, the world scientific community was outraged that a group of researchers engineered a mutant version of the H5N1 bird flu that could be transmitted to ferrets and transmitted through the air. The engineering results have sparked fears that this purposefully engineered deadly disease could leak from the laboratory or be accidentally released and trigger a global pandemic.
6. Nuclear
Or war using nukes. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (BAS) behind the Doomsday Clock said Earth was still on the verge of doomsday in 2021 due to the potential for nuclear war, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, and rampant hoaxes.
7. Robot awakening
Just like in the movie 'The Terminator', the killing machine is getting closer to reality. The United Nations has even called for a ban on making killer robots for fear that experts in a number of countries are developing it. Many computer scientists think the singularity, the point where artificial intelligence surpasses human intelligence, is very close.
8. Overpopulation
The fear of an overpopulated Earth has been around since the 18th century, when economist Thomas Malthus predicted that population growth would lead to mass starvation and burden the planet. With a global population reaching 7 billion and growing, many conservationists think that population growth is one of the main threats to Earth.
However, not everyone agrees with this opinion. Many also think that population growth will stabilize in the next 50 years, and that humanity will innovate to overcome the negative consequences of overcrowding.
9. Snowball effect
Each of the aforementioned doomsday scenarios can indeed happen. But most scientists think the snowball effect of some events is more likely. For example, global warming can increase the prevalence of pathogens as well as cause widespread climate change.
It is possible that the collapse of an ecosystem can make it difficult to produce food, for example due to the absence of bees to pollinate crops, or trees to filter agricultural water. So instead of a single major catastrophe, several relatively small but impactful factors could worsen life on Earth until it gradually degrades and disintegrates.