Why Civilization Won’t Outlast the Century

And why human extinction is likely.

We are teetering on the edge of our extinction. Doomsday Clock

There are times when I find Elon Musk’s statements totally bizarre. It’s enough already that he thinks that mankind has the capacity to survive on Mars, but when he makes the dissolution of the sun (in multi-billions of year’s time) a reason for reaching for the stars, I think he is a few sandwiches short of a picnic.

As I have stated on occasion, it isn’t one particular factor that will bring an end to civilization or consign humanity to another extinct species. Rather, it is a number of threads all being activated at the same time. When that happens, mankind will not have what it takes to hold on to civilization, and together with other difficulties, the species will die out.

I want to examine those trends, and then I want to demonstrate how our fate is sealed. I’m going to start with the most obvious and then work my way to factors that few consider.

Nuclear war

Three short years ago, climate change was the number one threat. Now the number one threat is nuclear war. Several factors have made this probable. The first is the growing ignorance of the kind of people in power. The second is the growing ignorance of populations in general. The third is the elevation of people with limited intellect into…