h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Given the scope for doomsaying, this entry is surprising mild.

It describes the "almost complete destruction of everything within the M25" as including "the death of many thousands of people" and causing "greater economic unrest than the attack on the Twin Towers".

I think that the complete destruction of London which has a population of about 8 million would rate significantly more important than the attack on the Twin Towers.

I didn't write the essay to scare people, just because it's an area of astronomy that interests me.

The entry doesn't say that the destruction of London wouldn't be significant- the economic unrest angle is simply to provide some kind of glimpse into possible effects of such an event outside the immediate death and destruction, i.e. how general life for the survivors would be effected in the short term afterwards. The attack on the twin towers is something which people can identify with now, and people can take this and see how they'd feel with an even larger event caused by a rock from space.

TK[1]