Poll: - A Worldwide Crisis -

[Sebenko]

All of the above.
Or me.

As of now, the most likely scenario seems to be economic collapse (we're on the verge from my perspective.)

Worse things have been caused by tulips.

 

[FactualSquirrel]

Ok the most probable is the squirrel and dolphin coalition to take back their land.

Well, we stopped that because of their rudeness.

Now it's all about the flying monkeys.

And you will all die!

 

[Trifixion]

Overpopulation. Effectively, this leads to a lot of the other options on the list - too many people means resource strains, which can lead (in extremis) to economic collapse. Too many people means too many differences of opinion, which can lead to declaration of war in whatever format - conventional, nuclear, whatever. And overcrowding leads to increased spread of disease, which ups the chances of virus / plague / whatever.

Overpopulation also increases the chance that somebody will accidentally knock over a canister containing 2-4-5 Trioxin, and thus bring about the zombie apocalypse option.

 

[The Heik]

Zombie Apocalypse? Dear god I hope so. Means that I'll be able to raid an army ammo dump and finally wield a minigun.

I love it how everyone always pictures themselves as a survivor. Who's to say that you won't become one of the very first zombies? I mean, for there to be zombie hordes, shitloads of people have to be infected in the first place, right?

A) I live in a remote locale, so the odds of an infected person getting there and biting me are very slim until the hordes have already formed
B) I know how to fire rifles, shotgun, and even SMGs (got to try out and MP5 a few years back) with generally good accuracy
C) I'm not much of a people person, so by the time I see an infected, it'll already be with a horde
D) I've already mapped out the route to my local army base. and don't worry I'm not a psychotic. I just had a REALLY scary dream when I was younger, and I did the mapping of a place where I would be safe to calm my nerves.

Edit: oh yes and

E)I live in a particularly forested area, and I own a ghillie suit, so I doubt that they would even see me

 

[Spoonius]

Zombie Apocalypse? Dear god I hope so. Means that I'll be able to raid an army ammo dump and finally wield a minigun.

I love it how everyone always pictures themselves as a survivor. Who's to say that you won't become one of the very first zombies? I mean, for there to be zombie hordes, shitloads of people have to be infected in the first place, right?

A) I live in a remote locale, so the odds of an infected person getting there and biting me are very slim until the hordes have already formed
B) I know how to fire rifles, shotgun, and even SMGs (got to try out and MP5 a few years back) with generally good accuracy
C) I'm not much of a people person, so by the time I see an infected, it'll already be with a horde
D) I've already mapped out the route to my local army base. and don't worry I'm not a psychotic. I just had a REALLY scary dream when I was younger, and I did the mapping of a place where I would be safe to calm my nerves.

Edit: oh yes and

E)I live in a particularly forested area, and I own a ghillie suit, so I doubt that they would even see me

Right...

So basically, if there ever actually is a zombie apocalypse, I should head off straight to your place.

 

[Kortney]

Because at the moment, they're financially stable enough to comfortably maintain peace.

But what happens if nations become desperate? What happens if survival becomes a higher priority than cooperation? I'm not just talking about military threats against a country, but also severe internal problems or disasters (gradual or sudden) that render a country's infrastructure incapable of supporting itself. What happens when one nation needs what another can't give, and conquest becomes the only guaranteed means of survival?
This is just one example.

Not all wars are fought for financial or political reasons.

To be financially stable enough for a world wide war, you need to be capable of having infrastructure that can hold your country up on its own. Having the infrastructure to sustain you during war is harder than trying to sustain you during peace. Look at Germany when their infrastructure went out the window in '45. Game over man, game over.

Good luck trying to start global conflict without being able to sustain yourself. It would be suicide. You wouldn't last a year.

World War III ain't happening - at least not in the foreseeable future. Another point worth mentioning is that nowadays if a country was to have a serious economic collapse, the amount of aid other countries would provide through co-operation would be more in your interest than trying to seize their assets violently.

I still can't see how it would happen. Not in the World we live in right now.

 

[Asturiel]

Well, we stopped that because of their rudeness.

Now it's all about the flying monkeys.

And you will all die!

Fool! They were perfect for the taking over though. If you set aside your differences you could have had all of the nuts!

 

[MeltedGeneral]

It's going to be the zombie apocalypse by way of genetic research gone bad. It at least gives me an excuse to use my swords and get to the nearest police station for weapons.

 

[stutheninja]

so yeah there's too many people on this earth. sux to be me i guess.

 

[stutheninja]

Personally i agree with the messed up kid in GTA 4 who said we need to kill the weak and old through involuntary euthanaisa.

I hope you were being sarcastic, because if you're serious, then I have no respect for you as a human being.

just a bit of fun

 

[Julianking93]

Definitely overpopulation, but it could be any number of things.

How about if we just include everything for the hell of it!?

 

[Tuddle]

One Word: Zombies

 

[capin Rob]

i hope zombies, because my famliy owns hunting rifels, and if you have a hunting rifle and a high spot zombies are fun

 

[oppp7]

Overpopulation wouldn't extinct people, or probably even mess up the numbers much, but it will make conditions horrible.

 

[SnootyEnglishman]

A complete economic collapse being caused by overpopluation.

 

[Lullabye]

Overpopulation, war and economic collapse go hand in hand.
"The mooooore we get together, together, together, the mooooore we get together the more fightin' there'll be!"

 

[Turbulenssi]

I have to agree with most of the replys and go for overpopulation.

But then again war over natural resources always sounds something stupid enough for us humans to fall into.

 

[Visulth]

I doubt overpopulation will lead to any global significant change--i.e. not a change that affects everyone equally. For one, human death rates are still very high so despite the exponential growth of our wonderful species, it's still going to be a major factor in only very specific areas (i.e. Tokyo, Los Angeles, Africa, etc).

I don't imagine Iqualuit in Nunavut, Canada experiencing overpopulation issues anytime soon. (This is conjecture. If I'm wrong about that, as I don't live there, correct me)

After that, I don't think Nuclear war breaking out is very likely either, as the people with most nukes (i.e. America) are probably quite fixated on ensuring no one else's goes off. It's not a criticism or anything, I just believe they probably have many black ops missions focused on preventing any nuclear war/explosion.

The most likely event I think would be terrestrial. My reasoning is as follows:
1) Terrestrial events happen at a relatively consistent and predictable rate. (i.e. Earth quakes of large magnitudes happen at at x frequency/1000 years, super volcanoes explode once every x years, and so on)
2) There is relatively little we can do to stop it. If a volcano is going to explode, there's nothing we can do. If a methane gas deposit deep in the crust of the earth manages to work its way out from under the rock, float right up through the ocean and into the atmosphere to drastically change the atmosphere's composition... we're, well, boned.

Furthermore, we're due for plenty of dramatic events. Yellowstone park is building up, California's on a fault line, the magnetic field is slowly declining until it resets (I think something like 1000 years from now?), by probability's standards we're due for a large meteor, and so forth. These are things we can't escape.

EDIT:

I love it how everyone always pictures themselves as a survivor. Who's to say that you won't become one of the very first zombies? I mean, for there to be zombie hordes, shitloads of people have to be infected in the first place, right?

I agree with all your points. Also, if a zombie infection arose, I wouldn't mind being a zombie if I could retain some cognition. If zombies outnumber people, then by sheer probability I'd basically be following the giant horde going from place A to place B looking for people to eat. Odds are I wouldn't be near the front lines and never see any people to eat. It'd just be me, walking around. Doesn't sound too bad.