# Would it be theoretically possible for humans to wipe out all life on Earth? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [February 24, 2012, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-theoretically-possible-for-humans-to-wipe-out-all-life-on-earth/613824 "2012-02-24T10:37:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2012, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-theoretically-possible-for-humans-to-wipe-out-all-life-on-earth/613824/1 "2012-02-24T10:37:30Z")
Never mind that this is a lunatic idea that would never happen–I’m just wondering how much power we’d have to do so if, I don’t know, some bizarre brain parasite started controlling our thoughts the way [this one apparently does](http://notexactlyrocketscience.wordpress.com/2007/01/14/brain-parasite-drives-human-culture/) to like half the world and made us go on an orgy of destruction, albeit a well planned one (like that guy in Austin Texas who went up to the top of the tower and shot all those people and left a note asking for an autopsy on his brain to find out why he had this compulsion–and sure enough, he had a brain tumour). If it \*could \*be done, what are the steps? I know just shooting off all the nukes wouldn’t be enough. Do we dump toxic chemicals everywhere first? Start lots of fires? What’s the job for the last one out who has to shut off the lights? Last H-bomb detonation, I suppose. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2012, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-theoretically-possible-for-humans-to-wipe-out-all-life-on-earth/613824/2 "2012-02-24T10:50:30Z")
We probably don’t have the power. For example, there’s bacteria [nearly two miles down](http://www.planetary.org/news/2006/1027_Bacteria_Found_Thriving_Deep.html) - there’s no way we could reach and kill everything down to that depth at our present level of technology. We could do a heck of a lot of damage but not that much. The thing only within our power that _might_ work would be inducing massive climate change, like a runaway greenhouse that goes all the way to Venus conditions; but it’s my understanding that’s probably impossible to pull off. Now, given more time to develop our technology we almost certainly _could_ destroy all life on Earth; an obvious way to do so would be to hit it with a big enough asteroid that the surface is rendered molten. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2012, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-theoretically-possible-for-humans-to-wipe-out-all-life-on-earth/613824/3 "2012-02-24T11:13:28Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > Now, given more time to develop our technology we almost certainly _could_ destroy all life on Earth; an obvious way to do so would be to hit it with a big enough asteroid that the surface is rendered molten. Difficult to be certain the asteroid’s going to be big enough to do that, and we only get one try. I say we build giant rocket engines to propel the Earth ever so slightly off its orbit and into the Sun. It’s the only way to be sure. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2012, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-theoretically-possible-for-humans-to-wipe-out-all-life-on-earth/613824/4 "2012-02-24T11:22:43Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > Difficult to be certain the asteroid’s going to be big enough to do that, and we only get one try. I say we build giant rocket engines to propel the Earth ever so slightly off its orbit and into the Sun. It’s the only way to be sure. Nice! I love that you’re into the spirit of my oh-so-morbid question. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![markdash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@markdash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markdash)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2012, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-theoretically-possible-for-humans-to-wipe-out-all-life-on-earth/613824/5 "2012-02-24T12:30:55Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > Difficult to be certain the asteroid’s going to be big enough to do that, and we only get one try. I say we build giant rocket engines to propel the Earth ever so slightly off its orbit and into the Sun. It’s the only way to be sure. Someone’s been watching their Frisky Dingo. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2012, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-theoretically-possible-for-humans-to-wipe-out-all-life-on-earth/613824/6 "2012-02-24T14:13:27Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > Difficult to be certain the asteroid’s going to be big enough to do that, and we only get one try. I say we build giant rocket engines to propel the Earth ever so slightly off its orbit and into the Sun. It’s the only way to be sure. Or point the rockets in the other direction and fling us out into interstellar space. The earth would soon freeze solid. ---
**Author:** ![Brandus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/898d66/32.png) [@Brandus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brandus)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2012, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-theoretically-possible-for-humans-to-wipe-out-all-life-on-earth/613824/7 "2012-02-24T14:21:31Z")
An earth frozen solid, hurtling through space, would make quite the curious artifact for aliens to study. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2012, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-theoretically-possible-for-humans-to-wipe-out-all-life-on-earth/613824/8 "2012-02-24T14:26:18Z")
[Barney Stinson]Challenge Accepted[/Barney Stinson] ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2012, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-theoretically-possible-for-humans-to-wipe-out-all-life-on-earth/613824/9 "2012-02-24T14:28:06Z")
A sufficiently large asteroid strike could probably do it…or maybe a really really big comet strike (or, maybe a series of the things striking over and over again until all life is wiped out). You’d just need to locate one with the requisite dooms day potential, then spend large amounts of the earths wealthy and years, decades or even centuries (maybe more) shifting it’s orbit sufficiently to have a date with the earth and there you go. I’m not sure how big the asteroid or comet would have to be, or if you went with the multiple strikes thingy how many and of what size you’d need, but there is going to be a point where it crosses over to being ‘big enough’. Since there is plenty of material out there to fit the bill, it’s just a matter of how long you want to take and how much you want to spend to do the deed. -XT ---
**Author:** ![Sinaptics](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/278dde/32.png) [@Sinaptics](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sinaptics)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2012, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-theoretically-possible-for-humans-to-wipe-out-all-life-on-earth/613824/10 "2012-02-24T14:35:04Z")
Any way to strike at the sun? Massive nuclear strike? Something maybe to throw off the fusion reaction? Lots of ice cubes? ---
**Author:** ![Alka\_Seltzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Alka\_Seltzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alka_Seltzer)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2012, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-theoretically-possible-for-humans-to-wipe-out-all-life-on-earth/613824/11 "2012-02-24T14:58:07Z")
Do we have to destroy the Earth on a Friday? Can’t we at least wait until Monday? > [@Kobal2](#): > > I say we build giant rocket engines to propel the Earth ever so slightly off its orbit and into the Sun. It’s the only way to be sure. I’m not sure we have the energy sources to affect the Earth’s orbit significantly. It depends on how much fissionable and fuse-able materials we could gather. There is no upper limit on the size of an H-bomb. Certainly, detonating the current nuclear arsenal would do nothing. There is a lot of deuterium in sea water. > [@Skammer](#): > > Or point the rockets in the other direction and fling us out into interstellar space. The earth would soon freeze solid. The seas would quickly freeze over, but the Earth’s internal heat would keep them from freezing completely for many millions of years. Life could still exist around thermal vents, and underground. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2012, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-theoretically-possible-for-humans-to-wipe-out-all-life-on-earth/613824/12 "2012-02-24T15:00:33Z")
> [@Sinaptics](#): > > Any way to strike at the sun? Massive nuclear strike? Something maybe to throw off the fusion reaction? Lots of ice cubes? Well, if we throw _enough_ mass into the sun, sure. Would have to be a LOT of stuff, though. ---
**Author:** ![Alka\_Seltzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Alka\_Seltzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alka_Seltzer)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2012, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-theoretically-possible-for-humans-to-wipe-out-all-life-on-earth/613824/13 "2012-02-24T15:15:11Z")
> [@Sailboat](#): > > Well, if we throw _enough_ mass into the sun, sure. Would have to be a LOT of stuff, though. The more stuff you throw at the sun, the hotter it burns. As you increase it’s mass, the pressure at it’s core is increased, which increases the rate of fusion reactions. We couldn’t do enough to make any difference, even throwing Jupiter in there wouldn’t do a lot. I suggest we just need to be patient. The sun is slowly getting hotter as helium builds up in it’s core, increasing the pressure there. In about 500-1,000 million years or so the Earth’s atmosphere will be stripped away and it will be too hot to live at the surface. In about 5 billion years it will become a red giant, and will probably swallow the Earth completely. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2012, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-theoretically-possible-for-humans-to-wipe-out-all-life-on-earth/613824/14 "2012-02-24T15:36:35Z")
> [@Sinaptics](#): > > Any way to strike at the sun? Massive nuclear strike? Something maybe to throw off the fusion reaction? Lots of ice cubes? Pretty much no; the sun contains 99.8% of the solar system’s mass; throw the rest of the system in and it would barely make a difference. ---
**Author:** ![Stately\_Greek\_Automaton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aca169/32.png) [@Stately\_Greek\_Automaton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stately_Greek_Automaton)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2012, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-theoretically-possible-for-humans-to-wipe-out-all-life-on-earth/613824/15 "2012-02-24T15:43:25Z")
> [@Alka\_Seltzer](#): > > I’m not sure we have the energy sources to affect the Earth’s orbit significantly. It depends on how much fissionable and fuse-able materials we could gather. There is no upper limit on the size of an H-bomb. Certainly, detonating the current nuclear arsenal would do nothing. There is a lot of deuterium in sea water. Whether we have the technology capable of doing this or not, I’m not sure, but wouldn’t a few (hundreds, thousands, more?) mass drivers set up to dig and shoot off soil, rock, etc. be the best way to do it? I suppose it’d take quite a long time, but if time isn’t an issue… ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2012, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-theoretically-possible-for-humans-to-wipe-out-all-life-on-earth/613824/16 "2012-02-24T16:01:06Z")
> [@Skammer](#): > > Or point the rockets in the other direction and fling us out into interstellar space. The earth would soon freeze solid. Yeeeaaah, but I don’t know enough about biology to be absolutely positive some pissant bacterium or virus would not be able to remain in suspended animation even at absolute zero temperatures. And then the errant Earth stumbles upon the gravity well of some random star, cobbles up a lopsided orbit, gets heated up, the melting ice forms a DIY atmosphere and helloooo life again, coming back once more like Freddy Krueger. Or even if there’s no remnant of current life, we’d still have the ingredients of the primordial soup lying around. In other words, abject failure. No, no, trust me. The Sun’s the way forward. [QUOTE=Alka Seltzer] I’m not sure we have the energy sources to affect the Earth’s orbit significantly. [/QUOTE] What if we asked every last Chinese to climb on a chair, then jump down at once ? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Alka\_Seltzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Alka\_Seltzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alka_Seltzer)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2012, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-theoretically-possible-for-humans-to-wipe-out-all-life-on-earth/613824/17 "2012-02-24T16:02:35Z")
> [@Stately\_Greek\_Automaton](#): > > Whether we have the technology capable of doing this or not, I’m not sure, but wouldn’t a few (hundreds, thousands, more?) mass drivers set up to dig and shoot off soil, rock, etc. be the best way to do it? I suppose it’d take quite a long time, but if time isn’t an issue… Possibly. Nuclear fusion is the most powerful energy source we might be able to harness. A giant H-bomb isn’t a very efficient way of imparting momentum to an object. However, it is possible with current technology. Fusion reactors powering mass-drivers might be more efficient, but that would depend on the efficiency of the reactors, power transfer losses, and performance of the mass drivers. And of course, we don’t yet know if it’s possible to build a practical fusion reactor or mass driver. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2012, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-theoretically-possible-for-humans-to-wipe-out-all-life-on-earth/613824/18 "2012-02-24T16:03:33Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > We probably don’t have the power. For example, there’s bacteria [nearly two miles down](http://www.planetary.org/news/2006/1027_Bacteria_Found_Thriving_Deep.html) - there’s no way we could reach and kill everything down to that depth at our present level of technology. We could do a heck of a lot of damage but not that much. What about nuclear winter? Wouldn’t that kill everything eventually? Including the bacteria 2 miles down? Maybe not immediately, but after a few years/ decades/ centuries? ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2012, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-theoretically-possible-for-humans-to-wipe-out-all-life-on-earth/613824/19 "2012-02-24T16:07:17Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > What about nuclear winter? Wouldn’t that kill everything eventually? Including the bacteria 2 miles down? Maybe not immediately, but after a few years/ decades/ centuries? Wouldn’t last long enough. In addition to the bacteria 2 miles down, there are also the creatures that live near hydrothermal vents and don’t derive any energy from the sun at all. I also don’t think we could create a nuclear winter deep enough to even kill all the bacteria and other unicellular life on the surface. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2012, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-theoretically-possible-for-humans-to-wipe-out-all-life-on-earth/613824/20 "2012-02-24T16:20:51Z")
I’m thinking some kind of self-replicating nano-machines. You’d probably need more than one kind, including something that could eat through those 2 miles of rock and somehow replicate and power itself from the minerals. Would some kind of aberrant crystal work? Sort of like Vonnegut’s fictional ice-9. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-it-be-theoretically-possible-for-humans-to-wipe-out-all-life-on-earth/613824.md?page=2)