How does a world die?

[Alverant]

Re: How does a world die?

 

Not really a Champions issue unless you're talking about how supervillains will destroy them.

 

Actually I put this here because this is the most popular of the Hero boards I frequent. Another reason is that the concept of a dying world happens a lot in sci-fi and when superheroes goes off into space. At some point there's a narration that goes something like "Quonus ... a dying world where the people struggle for life on a daily basis"

[Lord Mhoram]

Re: How does a world die?

 

 

It's estimated that the avian flu will kill roughly half of the people it infects, to say nothing of wild bird populations. Now imagine a virus engineered by VIPER or Dr. Destroyer or the like--even more deadly, even more virulent, and even more llikely to jump species. If a virus like that were to get out, we'd all be pretty much screwed.

.

 

Here comes Captain Trips.

[Publius]

Re: How does a world die?

 

Actually, that exitmundi site is cool (I wish the links were a bit more clear than "Twist" "Flash" and "****". I was going to post a couple of ideas but they are all there I think.

 

Well, just a few maybe... I presume you want to make it suck to be on Earth without a total wipeout.

 

To build on Trebuchet's post, the loss of magnetic field: say hello doses of radiation, loss of communication (even hardwired) etc. which nicely creates a postapocalyptic setting (or maybe not, as the exitmundi site says, there is a debate over how much effect this will actually have -- to me that means you have a free hand, go for it).

 

Megavolcanoes, several here have mentioned them, are always great for diaster fare, I just DVR'd a show that went into detail what would happen if Yellowstone went all "Marvel's Civil War" on us (what? I couldn't think of anything worse). Short answer: Ere'We Uck'Feyed as the Porcine Latinus would say. Long answer: devestation in the middle of the country, choking layer of ash through most of the rest, Nuclear Winter chaser worldwide. That's enough to leave most us survivors in leather chaps combing the highways for juice (only like, with snow).

 

Solarflare (or a distant Gamma Ray Burst) would cook one side of the planet, strip the ozone (and maybe some atmosphere too) and make life nasty for the other side. Read Niven's "Inconstant Moon" or the Outer Limits episode of the same name that Niven himself wrote the screenplay for.

[Drhoz]

Re: How does a world die?

 

Solarflare (or a distant Gamma Ray Burst) would cook one side of the planet, strip the ozone (and maybe some atmosphere too) and make life nasty for the other side. Read Niven's "Inconstant Moon" or the Outer Limits episode of the same name that Niven himself wrote the screenplay for.

 

i did wonder what long-term effect that superflare would have had on the climate - especially when everything flammable on half the planet just went up in smoke. The phytoplankton over the same area would have been cooked alive, too...

[Pariah]

Re: How does a world die?

 

Imagine if a supervillain (or group thereof) developed a machine powerful enough to do something really catastrophic to the planet, like stopping the rotation of the planet's core and causing all sorts of atmospheric and/or radiation problems. Or maybe the device would melt so much of the polar ice caps that it throws off the freshwater/saltwater balance in the world's ocean currents, triggering a new ice age. In either case, any superheroes would be hard pressed to fix the problem, and it would be The End Of The World As We Know It.

 

On second thought, never mind. Both of those scenarios are way too far-fetched to be believable.

[Publius]

Re: How does a world die?

 

i did wonder what long-term effect that superflare would have had on the climate - especially when everything flammable on half the planet just went up in smoke. The phytoplankton over the same area would have been cooked alive' date=' too...[/quote']Off the top of my head, bad. Oxygen reduction alone would be interesting, and wouldn;t like huge portions of the sea have boiled? Of course,there are a lot fewer people/plants/animals needing both the oxygen and the water. I read somewhere that this sort of cooking will increase some kind of nasty chemical (some dioxide, Nitrogen? I dunno) in the atmosphere which will lead to dimming, welcome nuclear winter.

 

Pretty much instant post-apoc. Get fitted for your chaps.

[transmetahuman]

Re: How does a world die?

 

Of course' date=' there's always the nuclear (or is is nuclayer?) winter scenario.[/quote']

[Homer Simpson voice]"It's pronounced 'new-cue-ler'."[/Homer Simpson voice]

 

Sorry, had to.

 

On topic: runaway/uncontrolled nanodisassemblers (the "grey goo" scenario), sustained ice age, aging sun, giant thing built in space to block sunlight, atmospheric contaminants of various kinds pushing us past a threshold into a runaway greenhouse effect, infection of the biosphere with alien microorganisms that are more robust and efficient than terrestrial DNA-based organisms, just to name a few. Some of those wipe out all life, some just humans (and other "higher" organisms); some can be fought, some not. If the idea is to end up with a just-barely-habitable planet, you'll have fewer options, and it'll depend on what tech level humans reach to fight/control it.

[Pariah]

Re: How does a world die?

 

[Homer Simpson voice]"It's pronounced 'new-cue-ler'."[/Homer Simpson voice]

 

Sorry, had to.

 

 

[burns]Excellent.[/burns]

I was actually going for the George W. voice, but you get the idea.

 

The really scary thing is that I had a professor who pronounced it wrong. In the Chemistry department. And he was one of the undergraduate advisors. Nice guy, though, and other than that, a heck of a teacher.

[tylermcdowell]

Re: How does a world die?

 

If I recall correctly from the John Carter Mars books, the gravity wasn't enough to keep the oxygen atmosphere from escaping into space and the oceans evaporated soon after. The people developed a system of atmosphere regenerators that ran constantly and were more or less neutral. The end of Princess of Mars outlined all this.

 

There are many ways that the "end" can happen in books and movies. The Species movies used a alien killer virus that invaded a host, turning it into a hybrid alien killing machine so that the "invaded" planet would be sterilized of lifeforms before the aliens arrived. Stephen King's Book "The Stand" had it's superflu, the Captain Trips mentioned, that killed almost everyone. Expand it's targets to include most plants and not much will live after that.

 

An interesting one that was abounding in paranoia circles is Nemisis. It was supposedly a rouge planet 5-10 times the size of Jupitar passing between Earth and the sun. The resulting solar flares/storms, radiation, and gavitation distortions was supposed to kill everyone on earth, except for some US/Canadian government types that had secret bunkers built in North Dakota and Canada. This was supposed to take place about three years ago.

 

Then there are asteriods, comets, and such. There are a couple of moons around Uranus that actually swap orbits over time. If they should hit or get thrown out of orbit, then that could be enough to upset the solar system. One really big, sustained volcano eruption could in theory put out enough smoke to keep most plants from growing. (seems that if plants get taken out, most everything else follows.)

 

Nuclear war is a good choice. Even if radiation and fallout are "controled" there was an old sci-fi book that I cannot recall, that theorized the explosions would knock the Earth off it's axis and the people survived by flying a 747 to the south pole and it's warmed up as it moved toward the equator. (sounds like Waterworld.)

 

In short, if it is going to kill a world it seems it either has to be really small or really big.

[tylermcdowell]

Re: How does a world die?

 

Looking at the exitmundi site, Nemesis is listed. I heard about it on a radio program I listened to driving home from work on Tuesday afternoons. Had paranormal investigator as a guest, Dr. Michael Lynch. He has a website, http://www.michael-lynch.com/x/. Might be good for an idea or giggle.

[Metaphysician]

Re: How does a world die?

 

Nuclear war is a good choice. Even if radiation and fallout are "controled" there was an old sci-fi book that I cannot recall, that theorized the explosions would knock the Earth off it's axis and the people survived by flying a 747 to the south pole and it's warmed up as it moved toward the equator. (sounds like Waterworld.)

 

Woh, boy. I think that one just broke the scientific plausbility meter. Sounds worse than "The Day the Earth Moved". . .