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"Last Days on Earth (20/20)"

2-hour special, aired on ABC TV, August 30, 2006

This interesting show described various ways that might destroy life as we know it.

Some risks are the same as identified by Sir Martin Res and summarized in a previous Tip.

I seem to recall the show saying that their list had seven catastrophes. I counted eight:

Gamma ray burst somewhere nearby in the galaxy
We are intercepted by a moving black hole
Automation turns on us (robots take over!)
Super Volcanoes (e.g., the Yellowstone caldera could eject 1000 times the amount as from Mount St. Helens)
Asteroid impact
Nuclear war
Plague (perhaps by bio-terrorism)
Global warming.

It seemed that the everything in the show was just building up to the last. I suspect the show's real agenda was to highlight the global warming issue. Perhaps this is because this is a) more certain to occur, b) more actionable and c) will have effects felt within a few generations.

I'm always disappointed when the global warming remedies fail to include population reduction.

—John Schuyler, August 2006.