Armageddon : The Complete List of Extinction Level Events
Created | Updated Mar 18, 2002
<GUIDE>
<INTRO></INTRO>
<BODY><FONT size=6/><B>Don't bother wearing sunscreen...</B></FONT>
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<B><I>Since this world is currently experiencing a delightful amount of paranoia about the End of the World, or Armageddon as it is known informally, I thought it would be a nice thing to list out the known ELE's that currently exist. Let me know if you think of more (if you are still around by then...)</I></B>
<BR/><BR/>
<B>Alien Invasion</B>. A Hollywood favourite, this one. There is a long held belief that nasty aliens are currently "out there" watching Paul Daniels, Home and Away and Terry Wogan and deciding that enough is enough, the inhabitants of Earth will just have to go. Usually involves "death rays" and spaceships the size of Manhattan etc.
<BR/><BR/>
<B>Biological Weapons</B>. The development of weaponry which contains biological agents / superbugs that are extremely lethal and difficult or impossible to cure (Anthrax and smallpox being good examples). Cheap to develop, impossible to estimate the result. Many governments around the world still spend good taxpayers money to see how lots of people can die horribly.
<BR/><BR/>
<B>Black Holes</B>. Apparently, space is full of what is known as Primeval Black Holes : massively dense objects that are incredibly tiny. They were formed during the big bang and they spend their time drifting around the universe until they find an appropriate planet to swallow up. In this scenario, a black hole buries itself in the Earths core, and over time begins to suck in material, until "pop". We are all squashed into a little ball the size of an electron.
<BR/><BR/>
<A id="Comet Impact"/>
<B>Comet Impact</B>. A large body with a diameter greater than 1 mile could destroy life as we know it by releasing the energy of oooh, millions of atomic bombs, and causing a nuclear winter. Commonly believed to be the cause of the dinosaur extinctions, 65 million years ago. Apparently our local space is full of candidate objects, <I>so its only a matter of time..</I>
<BR/><BR/>
<B>Ebola</B>. See <A href="#Hot Viruses">Hot Viruses</A>.
<BR/><BR/>
<B>Famine</B>. Many foods currently eaten today are in many ways totally different to their naturally occurring cousins. Wheat, for example, has been specially selected over the years, so that it contains much more food per stalk than would otherwise occur naturally. The downside of this is that these foodstuffs depend almost entirely on science for their survival. They cannot reproduce naturally anymore and their defenses against predators are totally dependent on advances in pesticide and herbicide science. If scientists begin to lose this continuous race against nature, then wheat (among other foods) is off the menu. Permanently.
<BR/><BR/>
<B>Flood, The</B> Biblical myth about the world being covered by water, which appears to have been corroberated by similar myths around the same time. Recent findings by scientists indicate that the myths could have originated from the actual flooding of the Black Sea by the Mediterranean only 5,000 years ago.
<BR/><BR/>
<B>Global Warming</B>. See <A href="#Greenhouse Effect">Greenhouse Effect</A>.
<BR/><BR/>
<A id="Greenhouse Effect"/>
<B>Greenhouse Effect</B>. Gradual buildup of greenhouse gasses such as carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Greenhouse gasses trap heat, so global temperatures begin to rise, and rise, and rise. A commonly expressed short term effect is the rise in sea levels globally. Our neighbouring planet Venus is the victim of a runaway greenhouse effect, and temperatures there are commonly in excess of 400 degrees celcius.
<BR/><BR/>
<A id="Hot Viruses"/>
<B>Hot Viruses</B>. Hot viruses are devilish viruses that infect unsuspecting people and cause them to rapidly degenerate into a soup of virus infected goo. Before death, all pores and orifices in the body start to leak blood. Examples are Ebola and Marburg. There is no cure at the moment so it is worrying people silly.
<BR/><BR/>
<B>Ice Age</B>. By Earth standards, the last Ice Age finished very recently (only 10,000 years ago). An Ice Age now would plunge most of the Western World into a deep freeze. Some scientists believe it could occur very rapidly indeed. Ice Ages tend to last, on average 100,000 years.
<BR/><BR/>
<B>Little Millennium.</B> Similar to the Year 2000 bug, only this one happens on September 9, 1999. (9/9/99). Computers will interpret this date as a sort of dummy date and they will stop working. (Obviously, a load of steaming rubbish, as we are all happily still here). See <A href="#Year 2000">Year 2000</A>.
<BR/><BR/>
<B>Marburg</B>. See <A href="#Hot Viruses">Hot Viruses</A>.
<BR/><BR/>
<B>Meltdown</B>. Possibility that if a nuclear reactor overheats and goes critical, then the remnants will bore their way into the earths core, with unknown (but, as always, horrible) results.
<BR/><BR/>
<B>Meteorite Impact</B>. See <A href="#Comet Impact">Comet Impact</A>.
<BR/><BR/>
<B>Millennium Bug</B>. See <A href="#Year 2000">Year 2000</A>.
<BR/><BR/>
<B>Nuclear War</B>. In this scenario, one country starts to fling dirty big thermonuclear missiles at another country. The other country then reciprocates with even dirtier big thermonuclear missiles, and before you know it the earth as seen from the moon is one hell of a firework party. As a side effect, you might even get <A href="#Nuclear Winter">Nuclear Winter</A> thrown in for free.
<BR/><BR/>
<A id="Nuclear Winter"/>
<B>Nuclear Winter</B>. More of an effect than a cause, but if enough material is pushed into the stratosphere then this will block out direct sunlight and there will be a dramatic drop in temperature. The net effect is that most large creatures (including us lot) will be wiped out.
<BR/><BR/>
<B>Polar Reversal</B>. Our magnetic poles are not very stable and are continuously changing position. Geological records indicate that they have actually changed polarity many times in the past, and that <I>we are now due another reversal in polarity</I>. Little is known about the effect of this on life, but most scientists think that at a minimum, pigeons will fall out of the sky.
<BR/><BR/>
<B>Rapture, The</B>. Christian belief that as a prelude to the end of the world, the righteous will be spirited off to another world and the rest of us sinners will be left around to pick up the pieces. Good riddance, I say.
<BR/><BR/>
<B>Superbugs</B>. A number of strains of bacteria discovered recently are immune to all known antibiotics, e.g. E-Coli. If these strains become widespread, there is a likelihood of old diseases reappearing (black death, anthrax, cholera) with death rates similar to what they were like in years gone by.
<BR/><BR/>
<A id="Year 2000"/>
<B>Year 2000</B>. Also known as "Y2K", or the "Millennium Bug". This is caused by problems in most computers date logic, where the turn of the century will be unrecognised by most computers. On Jan 1, 2000, computers will stop functioning properly, and all sorts of bad things begin to happen. Nuclear power stations will overheat, dams burst, supply chains grind to a halt, and there will be generalised chaos and mayhem everywhere. Except Papua New Guinea. They don't have many computers in Papua New Guinea.
<BR/><BR/>
</BODY>
<REFERENCES></REFERENCES>
</GUIDE>
<INTRO></INTRO>
<BODY><FONT size=6/><B>Don't bother wearing sunscreen...</B></FONT>
<BR/><BR/>
<B><I>Since this world is currently experiencing a delightful amount of paranoia about the End of the World, or Armageddon as it is known informally, I thought it would be a nice thing to list out the known ELE's that currently exist. Let me know if you think of more (if you are still around by then...)</I></B>
<BR/><BR/>
<B>Alien Invasion</B>. A Hollywood favourite, this one. There is a long held belief that nasty aliens are currently "out there" watching Paul Daniels, Home and Away and Terry Wogan and deciding that enough is enough, the inhabitants of Earth will just have to go. Usually involves "death rays" and spaceships the size of Manhattan etc.
<BR/><BR/>
<B>Biological Weapons</B>. The development of weaponry which contains biological agents / superbugs that are extremely lethal and difficult or impossible to cure (Anthrax and smallpox being good examples). Cheap to develop, impossible to estimate the result. Many governments around the world still spend good taxpayers money to see how lots of people can die horribly.
<BR/><BR/>
<B>Black Holes</B>. Apparently, space is full of what is known as Primeval Black Holes : massively dense objects that are incredibly tiny. They were formed during the big bang and they spend their time drifting around the universe until they find an appropriate planet to swallow up. In this scenario, a black hole buries itself in the Earths core, and over time begins to suck in material, until "pop". We are all squashed into a little ball the size of an electron.
<BR/><BR/>
<A id="Comet Impact"/>
<B>Comet Impact</B>. A large body with a diameter greater than 1 mile could destroy life as we know it by releasing the energy of oooh, millions of atomic bombs, and causing a nuclear winter. Commonly believed to be the cause of the dinosaur extinctions, 65 million years ago. Apparently our local space is full of candidate objects, <I>so its only a matter of time..</I>
<BR/><BR/>
<B>Ebola</B>. See <A href="#Hot Viruses">Hot Viruses</A>.
<BR/><BR/>
<B>Famine</B>. Many foods currently eaten today are in many ways totally different to their naturally occurring cousins. Wheat, for example, has been specially selected over the years, so that it contains much more food per stalk than would otherwise occur naturally. The downside of this is that these foodstuffs depend almost entirely on science for their survival. They cannot reproduce naturally anymore and their defenses against predators are totally dependent on advances in pesticide and herbicide science. If scientists begin to lose this continuous race against nature, then wheat (among other foods) is off the menu. Permanently.
<BR/><BR/>
<B>Flood, The</B> Biblical myth about the world being covered by water, which appears to have been corroberated by similar myths around the same time. Recent findings by scientists indicate that the myths could have originated from the actual flooding of the Black Sea by the Mediterranean only 5,000 years ago.
<BR/><BR/>
<B>Global Warming</B>. See <A href="#Greenhouse Effect">Greenhouse Effect</A>.
<BR/><BR/>
<A id="Greenhouse Effect"/>
<B>Greenhouse Effect</B>. Gradual buildup of greenhouse gasses such as carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Greenhouse gasses trap heat, so global temperatures begin to rise, and rise, and rise. A commonly expressed short term effect is the rise in sea levels globally. Our neighbouring planet Venus is the victim of a runaway greenhouse effect, and temperatures there are commonly in excess of 400 degrees celcius.
<BR/><BR/>
<A id="Hot Viruses"/>
<B>Hot Viruses</B>. Hot viruses are devilish viruses that infect unsuspecting people and cause them to rapidly degenerate into a soup of virus infected goo. Before death, all pores and orifices in the body start to leak blood. Examples are Ebola and Marburg. There is no cure at the moment so it is worrying people silly.
<BR/><BR/>
<B>Ice Age</B>. By Earth standards, the last Ice Age finished very recently (only 10,000 years ago). An Ice Age now would plunge most of the Western World into a deep freeze. Some scientists believe it could occur very rapidly indeed. Ice Ages tend to last, on average 100,000 years.
<BR/><BR/>
<B>Little Millennium.</B> Similar to the Year 2000 bug, only this one happens on September 9, 1999. (9/9/99). Computers will interpret this date as a sort of dummy date and they will stop working. (Obviously, a load of steaming rubbish, as we are all happily still here). See <A href="#Year 2000">Year 2000</A>.
<BR/><BR/>
<B>Marburg</B>. See <A href="#Hot Viruses">Hot Viruses</A>.
<BR/><BR/>
<B>Meltdown</B>. Possibility that if a nuclear reactor overheats and goes critical, then the remnants will bore their way into the earths core, with unknown (but, as always, horrible) results.
<BR/><BR/>
<B>Meteorite Impact</B>. See <A href="#Comet Impact">Comet Impact</A>.
<BR/><BR/>
<B>Millennium Bug</B>. See <A href="#Year 2000">Year 2000</A>.
<BR/><BR/>
<B>Nuclear War</B>. In this scenario, one country starts to fling dirty big thermonuclear missiles at another country. The other country then reciprocates with even dirtier big thermonuclear missiles, and before you know it the earth as seen from the moon is one hell of a firework party. As a side effect, you might even get <A href="#Nuclear Winter">Nuclear Winter</A> thrown in for free.
<BR/><BR/>
<A id="Nuclear Winter"/>
<B>Nuclear Winter</B>. More of an effect than a cause, but if enough material is pushed into the stratosphere then this will block out direct sunlight and there will be a dramatic drop in temperature. The net effect is that most large creatures (including us lot) will be wiped out.
<BR/><BR/>
<B>Polar Reversal</B>. Our magnetic poles are not very stable and are continuously changing position. Geological records indicate that they have actually changed polarity many times in the past, and that <I>we are now due another reversal in polarity</I>. Little is known about the effect of this on life, but most scientists think that at a minimum, pigeons will fall out of the sky.
<BR/><BR/>
<B>Rapture, The</B>. Christian belief that as a prelude to the end of the world, the righteous will be spirited off to another world and the rest of us sinners will be left around to pick up the pieces. Good riddance, I say.
<BR/><BR/>
<B>Superbugs</B>. A number of strains of bacteria discovered recently are immune to all known antibiotics, e.g. E-Coli. If these strains become widespread, there is a likelihood of old diseases reappearing (black death, anthrax, cholera) with death rates similar to what they were like in years gone by.
<BR/><BR/>
<A id="Year 2000"/>
<B>Year 2000</B>. Also known as "Y2K", or the "Millennium Bug". This is caused by problems in most computers date logic, where the turn of the century will be unrecognised by most computers. On Jan 1, 2000, computers will stop functioning properly, and all sorts of bad things begin to happen. Nuclear power stations will overheat, dams burst, supply chains grind to a halt, and there will be generalised chaos and mayhem everywhere. Except Papua New Guinea. They don't have many computers in Papua New Guinea.
<BR/><BR/>
</BODY>
<REFERENCES></REFERENCES>
</GUIDE>
