How our planet will die

OK, this is an exercise in mental masturbation, but I thought I would share it.

Someday, our planet will die. Most likely it won't happen for hundreds of millions of years. Billions maybe. So don't worry too much. But if you really want to, bigthink.com has asked some thinkers how it will happen. Will we kill our own planet, or will something else?

   Paleontologist Peter Ward: Asteroid. Happens every 100 million years or so. Or warming poles retard wind and ocean circulation and hydrogen sulfide bubbles up from below and kills us all.
   IMHO: Asteroids too small a chance to worry about. Sulfuric acid? Too little is known about air and ocean dynamics to make this too worrisome. But it's worth considering.

   Theoretical physicist Michio Kaku: Not warming. The world will freeze. Hell, the universe will freeze. It's expanding. But don't worry, we'll know enough about physics that we'll be able to escape into a parallel universe.
   IMHO: We'll all be long dead before the universe is. Escape to other dimensions? Maybe that'll be sooner. I read a science fiction story about that when I was a kid. But who knows?

   Whole Earth dude Stewart Brand: Global warming.
   IMHO: We have no idea. Every week another scientist comes out with another prediction of the world's future warming, bringing up factors we hadn't considered before. We don't even know what factors we still have not considered. Our computer models are as accurate as a blind one-legged armadillo trying to hit a target three miles away. Still, that means we have as much reason to worry as not worry. So worry seems the more logical choice. Besides, all the crap we're pouring into the atmosphere can't be good. Besides, the world won't end. It'll just go on without us. Cockroaches will go on.

   Astronomer and astrophysicist Edward Sion:  Asteroid again. But we have the technology to push it out of the way.
  IMHO: He's right. So why worry?

   Physics professor Melissa Franklin: The Large Hadron Collider creates a black hole.
   IMHO: Wasn't this idea all the rage BEFORE the Collider was started up? Yeah, well, some physicists thought the atomic bomb would set the atmosphere on fire too. Besides, the Collider doesn't work that well anyway. I won't entirely rule it out. But I don't entirely rule out the possibility that a big elf in a red suit can visit every chimney in the world in one night, either. Similar odds.

There are five more. I'll address those tomorrow. Unless I'm sucked down a black hole.