End of the world

Human life on this planet will embrace ultimate death or extinction within a period of maximum 90 to 100 years. Nothing is more certain than death. Everything in the universe has to bow to this inescapable phenomenon of death as nothing is forever. The same holds true for our existence on this little planet - the Earth. Eventual demise of human life is not a matter of 'if'; it is a matter of 'when' only. This bitter and inevitable reality is also underpinned by the Quantum Laws of Physics which specify that each and every manifestation is limited in its duration and size regardless of the scale. By the end of the current century, not only will our planet be darker, it shall also depict a bleak and desolate landscape. Various kinds of disorders keeping a tight grip on this planet at this time are the forerunners of the stark reality. On having mature reflection, the factors which will interplay to make the human life on this planet meet its doom can be classified into two types; man-made factors and other hostile ones which lie outside the dominion of human beings. As far as the man-made factors are concerned, mankind has all the ducks in a row to meet destruction. In this regard, nuclear warfare will come to the fore and play a dominant role. People across the globe may dissent with the writer stridently but the reality which only time will unfold is that in the foreseeable future when America will be going through the motions of disintegration and teetering on the verge of unavoidable collapse, it will resort to the use of atomic bombs which will open the door for a fully fledged nuclear war across the world, resulting in billions of deaths. Nuclear winter will ensue this terrible event. The devastating effects of nuclear winter, coupled with habitat destruction due to global warming, will deal the coup de grace to human life. In a bid to exterminate humanity, global warming will go Dutch with nuclear factor. Global warming will lead to ecological collapse and alter the fitness landscape to such an alarming extent that human life will no longer be able to survive and become extinct. Another formidable apprehension is that physical scientists might accidentally create a device that could destroy the Earth. The other hostile factors are ones which lie outside the purview of mankind but the intolerable extent of human follies on this planet are bound to draw the ire of nature and propel it to intervene and unleash hostile factors onto mankind to make its life cycle come to an absolute end - the demise. These hostile factors include various kinds of dangers which are lurking around. An unexpected reorientation involving Earth's axis of rotation can trigger an all-inclusive extinction event. Volcanoes erupt and vomit highly lethal chemicals and toxic materials into the air in megatons. If we cast out mind back to 6,40,000 years ago, a super-volcano had erupted at Yellowstone and its magma had taken most of the US West of the Mississippi River and a significant segment of northeastern Mexico into its folds. Another eruption of this kind, on an extensive scale, may spell a catastrophe for the whole of mankind. Such an eruption will have the potential to release alarming amounts of gases that will alter the balance of carbon dioxide and give rise to the greenhouse effect of biblical proportions. And it is odds-on that Pyroclastic materials and others of their ilk will enter into the atmosphere which, in turn, will blank out the sun at least partially and actualise a volcanic winter. Tsunamis enact dramatic shifts in coastlines; Ice ages assert themselves and maintain their ebb and flow; whole continents are rent asunder by glowing activities in the earth's mantle. We may quote here the case of 'Ice-9 type' transition in which this planet of earth with all-things on it, may get converted into a strange planet having weird features in the aftermath of a chain reaction. Besides this, our planet is located in the dreadfully inauspicious environment of space and a catalogue of disasters might engulf us from there. Astronomical accidents are the classic and glaring examples in this context. These accidents may set off a frightening chain of events, each of which may bring destruction on an unimaginable extent. A vast body of evidence supports that in the past history of earth there were periods when due to certain frightful astronomical events, an impressive number of species met with extinction practically overnight. Anytime an asteroid is suspected of passing close to the earth and spelling apocalyptic scenario. It was just an asteroid that had wiped the dinosaurs off the face of the earth sixty five million years ago, dubbed as Cretaceous - tertiary extinction. The same fate lies in store for the mankind in a span of about 100 years. The point of the extinction of human life from this planet is an absolute certainty and beyond any shadow of doubt. This reality had been communicated to the mankind through the divine religion of Islam about 1400 years ago. The absolute truth is that everything present has got a particular beginning and an end both in time and space. The truth is not that one essentially which one believes or advocates. It is exactly and indubitably what it is. It requires no negotiations. It has a precise meaning irrespective of whether you come round to this or rebuff it. The writer is a foreign affairs analyst E-mail: irfanasghar99@yahoo.com

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