# Can humans destroy the planet?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-humans-destroy-the-planet/818667>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 27, 2018, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-humans-destroy-the-planet/818667 "2018-07-27T11:37:01Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\
**Post date:** [August 6, 2018, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-humans-destroy-the-planet/818667/61 "2018-08-06T10:18:36Z")

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> [@mbh](#):
>
> Discussion of the effects of detonating a nuclear bomb in the Marianas Trench:
> 
> (Short version: Life in the Challenger Deep would be gone. Radioactive contamination in the ocean might cause a bit of trouble. But by and large, the planet would barely notice.)

Yes, but [you forgot to take account of the cat](https://what-if.xkcd.com/15/).

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**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\
**Post date:** [August 6, 2018, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-humans-destroy-the-planet/818667/62 "2018-08-06T20:38:33Z")

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> [@Barack\_Obama](#):
>
> By destroy I mean render incapable of sustaining any known life. Is it possible if all of humanity put their efforts towards destroying all life on earth that we could render the planet incapable of sustaining life?

I’m glad everyone has had some fun, but we’ll need now to ask Mods to Close the thread.

Efforts to destroy all life on Earth are probably illegal in many jurisdictions.

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**Author:** ![joema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a9adbd/32.png) [@joema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joema)\
**Post date:** [August 6, 2018, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-humans-destroy-the-planet/818667/63 "2018-08-06T21:42:17Z")

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> [@septimus](#):
>
> I’m glad everyone has had some fun, but we’ll need now to ask Mods to Close the thread…

Unfortunately they were so busy having fun they failed mention this issue has been formally studied in “The Resilience of Lift to Astrophysical Events”, (Sloan, 2017): [The Resilience of Life to Astrophysical Events | Scientific Reports](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-05796-x)

Besides chance events like a super nova, it would require an asteroid impact massing at least 1.7 x 10^17 kg. There are 19 known asteroids of sufficient mass.

In line with the OP question, could humans deflect such an asteroid and destroy earth. Deflecting asteroids with precision stand-off nuclear detonations has been studied for purpose of _saving_ the earth, and was found possible: “Deflecting Asteroids by Means of Standoff Nuclear Explosions”: [http://research.dynamicpatterns.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Deflecting-Asteroids-by-Means-of-Standoff-Nuclear-Explosions.pdf](http://research.dynamicpatterns.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Deflecting-Asteroids-by-Means-of-Standoff-Nuclear-Explosions.pdf)

“Nuclear Explosion Near Surface of Asteroids and Comets - General Description of the Phenomenon”: [http://csc.ac.ru/news/1997\_1/ae27.pdf](http://csc.ac.ru/news/1997_1/ae27.pdf)

The OP’s scenario would be the opposite – deflecting one of the 19 large asteroids to destroy all life on earth. Since the required asteroid size has been formally studied, there is no theoretical limit to the yield of a nuclear weapon, there’s no limit to the number of detonations possible if humans became obsessed with destroying all life on earth, and since the technology of trajectory calculation and precision fuzing is well understood, it would seem the answer to the OP’s question is yes.

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