# I want to kill everything in one week! **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 29, 2003, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-kill-everything-in-one-week/191573 "2003-07-29T01:34:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Aceospades](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/848f3c/32.png) [@Aceospades](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aceospades)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2003, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-kill-everything-in-one-week/191573/1 "2003-07-29T01:34:20Z")
Say I have unlimited resources and one year (or less) to prepare before the killing starts, Is it possible to kill every living thing on this planet in one week? \*I finally got my moon station built and stocked with hundreds of beautiful geniuses. \* ---
**Author:** ![Jojo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecd19e/32.png) [@Jojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jojo)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2003, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-kill-everything-in-one-week/191573/2 "2003-07-29T01:50:46Z")
Build thousands of huge upside down rockets and then silmultaneously set them all off propelling us into the sun. ---
**Author:** ![wolfstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d6d6ee/32.png) [@wolfstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfstu)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2003, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-kill-everything-in-one-week/191573/3 "2003-07-29T01:55:53Z")
Without destoroying the planet itself, it would be pretty hard. There are all kinds of hardy little things like ants and microbes, and those sulphur-eating bacteria in the ocean-floor volcano vents. And my meager understanding of orbital mechanics suggests that it would be hard to get the Earth to fall exactly into the sun. You might get it close enough to singe the surface and boil the oceans, though. That might kill everything off… but who knows? there could be some bacterium somewhere under a rock or something, somehow insulated from the heat. ---
**Author:** ![Phnord\_Prephect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/df705f/32.png) [@Phnord\_Prephect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phnord_Prephect)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2003, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-kill-everything-in-one-week/191573/4 "2003-07-29T07:11:41Z")
Unlimited resources? Literally unlimited? A year to prepare, as well? You better believe that’s possible. Take an infinite number of nukes and set 'em up in orbit. Job’s done as soon as they hit the ground and blow up. Simple. More elegant? Take your huge tugboat spaceships out to the asteroid belt, bring a few million of those suckers into LowEarthOrbit, and let 'em drop. Even more elegant? Well, how about setting up a black hole somewhere? Ya got one, it’s included in the ‘unlimited’ category above. q;} ---
**Author:** ![Eternal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@Eternal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eternal)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2003, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-kill-everything-in-one-week/191573/5 "2003-07-29T07:17:56Z")
You could always throw ten consecutive Mortal Kombat tournaments. Then Shao Khan could take care of the rest. Of course, this plan would take 1000 years, but it would be worth it. Because god I hate living things. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2003, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-kill-everything-in-one-week/191573/6 "2003-07-29T07:22:13Z")
I would suggest “seeding” the atmosphere with massive quantities of certain radioactive isotopes. A fine “dust” like consistency would probably do pretty well. here’s [a list of the various isotopes proposed for use in “salted” nuclear weapons.](http://www.cartage.org.lb/en/themes/Sciences/Chemistry/NuclearChemistry/NuclearWeapons/FirstChainReaction/TypesofNuclear/CobaltBombs.htm) Cobalt-60, for instance, has a radioactive half life of nearly 5 1/2 years. With a little creative distribution of the fallout into Earth’s air currents, and a good supply of the elements (hey, you said you’d have unlimited resourses), you could probably thoroughly contaminate most or all of Earth’s surface within a week. (I’d personally want to stretch that out to a _few_ weeks, just to be on the safe side.) Granted, that might not have an immediate enough effect on sea life (but I’m sure it would have _some_ effect, at least), and might not even kill the deep-sea organisms. My second suggestion would be to use an Asteroid…or, rather, a few _dozen_ asteroids. It is at least physically possible—if extraordinarily difficult, technologically —to move them from our solar system’s [urlhttp://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/solar\_system\_level1/asteroids.html]Asteroid Belt and into a collision course with Earth. I’d say, oh…30 asteroids, impacting on a rough “grid” upon the Earth’s surface? That’d wreck havoc upon the oceans, too. Plus, I doubt that the nations of the world would be able to shoot down _all_ of the asteroids. Especially if you have several score coming in at the same time. The downside, of course, is that the Asteroid plan, thorough as it would be, would take significantly longer than a year to prepare for. A decade, at least. Maybe two. “Good luck,” Ranchoth ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2003, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-kill-everything-in-one-week/191573/7 "2003-07-29T07:27:28Z")
Toss the Earth into the Sun. The details are left as an exercise for the reader. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Odinbob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/cab0a1/32.png) [@Odinbob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odinbob)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2003, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-kill-everything-in-one-week/191573/8 "2003-07-29T08:07:29Z")
Your main problem here is killing the ocean life and any life forms hiding out in caves. My suggestion is to make the sun become a red giant, from what i have read this will destroy mercury and venus and make earth the closest planet to the sun, That will kill your ocean life and all life on land masses, to get everything else I would try and create a massive amount of earthquakes nukes on every fault line works for me. Hope this helps ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2003, 9:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-kill-everything-in-one-week/191573/9 "2003-07-29T09:48:21Z")
If you absolutely, definitely want to kill everything including microbes and stuff, I think you’ll have to go with the “shoot Earth into the sun” plan. I don’t think any amount of nukes could kill every living thing. Even if you manage to literally blow the Earth up and send the pieces flying through space, I’m sure a couple of anaerobic bacteria would make it through the first week. ---
**Author:** ![Mockingbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c68b51/32.png) [@Mockingbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mockingbird)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2003, 9:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-kill-everything-in-one-week/191573/10 "2003-07-29T09:55:11Z")
Find the worst image possible, and broadcast it into everyone’s mind on a non-stop loop. I’m thinking of a menage with Ann Coulter, Pat Buchanan, and Louie Anderson. No one would be aroused, and everyone would kill themselves to make it stop. ---
**Author:** ![Iteki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/eada6e/32.png) [@Iteki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iteki)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2003, 10:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-kill-everything-in-one-week/191573/11 "2003-07-29T10:04:25Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mockingbird \* > \*\*No one would be aroused, and everyone would kill themselves to make it stop. \*\* Dude, how long you been on the interne? They would have an erotic fanfic newsgroup and webring within 24 hours. I would be surprised if there weren’t one already. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2003, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-kill-everything-in-one-week/191573/12 "2003-07-29T13:35:26Z")
To destroy all life on Earth, vote Republican in the next Presidential campaign. ---
**Author:** ![Aceospades](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/848f3c/32.png) [@Aceospades](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aceospades)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2003, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-kill-everything-in-one-week/191573/13 "2003-07-30T14:51:36Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Priceguy \* > \*\*If you absolutely, definitely want to kill everything including microbes and stuff, I think you’ll have to go with the “shoot Earth into the sun” plan. I don’t think any amount of nukes could kill every living thing. Even if you manage to literally blow the Earth up and send the pieces flying through space, I’m sure a couple of anaerobic bacteria would make it through the first week. \*\* See that’s a problem there. With out the earth my moon base with my hundreds of beautiful geniuses would not survive. I need the earth intact so the moon stays safe. I was thinking about a protean-based illness that kills all living things. Kind of like mad cows disease, but deadlier. I guess it would also have to be air born. Is something like this even possible? Also, even if this is possible, do you think it would kill everything in a week? Damn it I hate deadlines. ---
**Author:** ![Tyler\_Do\_Urden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3bc359/32.png) [@Tyler\_Do\_Urden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tyler_Do_Urden)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2003, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-kill-everything-in-one-week/191573/14 "2003-07-30T17:51:39Z")
Well, along those lines of thought, with unlimited resources you could design a nanobot virus. It wouldn’t have any biological or evolutionary constraints and you could set the thing on active search-and-destroy mode to kill anything that has a cell. Then makes tons of it (it can also be self replicating in a normal environment) and spread it out using a huge fleet of aicraft, boats, and trucks. They can even be self propelled and travel on their own. ---
**Author:** ![skeptic\_ev](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@skeptic\_ev](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/skeptic_ev)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2003, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-kill-everything-in-one-week/191573/15 "2003-07-30T20:42:01Z")
I think some of you are forgetting about one thing–cockroaches. Can’t be done, **Aceospades**. At least not without destroying the planet. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2003, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-kill-everything-in-one-week/191573/16 "2003-07-30T21:40:09Z")
Come to think of it, **Ice-9** might do the trick. ---
**Author:** ![Aceospades](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/848f3c/32.png) [@Aceospades](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aceospades)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2003, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-kill-everything-in-one-week/191573/17 "2003-07-30T21:41:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Tyler Do’Urden \* > \*\*Well, along those lines of thought, with unlimited resources you could design a nanobot virus. It wouldn’t have any biological or evolutionary constraints and you could set the thing on active search-and-destroy mode to kill anything that has a cell. Then makes tons of it (it can also be self replicating in a normal environment) and spread it out using a huge fleet of aicraft, boats, and trucks. They can even be self propelled and travel on their own. \*\* I like the way you think. You get right on that and I’ll let you join me on my moon base. So how far away are we from this technology? Can we do this now or maybe ten years from now or do I have to wait like 50 years before I have my army of killer nanobot minions. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2003, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-kill-everything-in-one-week/191573/18 "2003-07-30T23:54:29Z")
Use your unlimited resources to slow the moon down in its orbit until it comes into contact with the Earth, the crust parts, magma everywhere, the planet is effectively sterilised by superheated steam and molten rock. Worked in Larry Niven’s chapter contribution in _Berserker Base_, anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Aceospades](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/848f3c/32.png) [@Aceospades](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aceospades)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-kill-everything-in-one-week/191573/19 "2003-07-31T02:16:07Z")
Maybe if I found a way to vaporize the earth’s atmosphere. Kind of like a reverse Total Recall . But what kind of effect would this have on the moon? Also if I vaporize the earth’s atmosphere in one day, do you think this would kill EVERYTHING by the end of the week? ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-kill-everything-in-one-week/191573/20 "2003-07-31T02:57:57Z")
I think you have to better define your unlimited resources or this won’t be as fun. You mean you could hire God to snap her fingers & poof, all gone? Or you have all the money you could need & access to all the scientists, engineers and evil minions to carry out your plan, but using technology available today? In the latter case, all the nukes & killer microbes available w/in a year wouldn’t do it. There just aren’t enough nukes to kill all the microbes everywhere. If you used killer microbes, well the killer microbes would still be alive at the end of the killing week, wouldn’t they? I also don’t think any kind of killer microbe we could make could kill that indescriminately. Do you want the planet useable again after all the killing? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-want-to-kill-everything-in-one-week/191573.md?page=2)