The Next Mass Extinction

The End Of The World, the Next Mass Extinction, Armageddon (or whatever you choose to call it) is something that the press and TV like to speculate on. I've made an attempt to list all the things that should scare us:

'The Big Rip', from continuing expansion of the Universe

Asteroid, comet or interstellar object impact

Near approach by a stellar-sized black hole or neutron star

Solar flare anomaly / Myake Event

Nearby supernova

Gamma ray burster event in the Milky Way galaxy

Magnetic pole reversal

Yellowstone Park or other magma bubble

Flood basalt vulcanism

Ice age

Global warming

Polar melt / flooding

Large methane hydrate release from seabed

Tsunamis from a fault slip in Gran Canaria, or elsewhere

North Atlantic Conveyor (Gulf Stream) dies. Monsoons fail and Northern Europe freezes.

Nuclear / chemical / biological holocaust or terrorist event

GenEnged cancer plague or other bugs

Peak Oil (as per Hubbert et al) and the aftermath

Blue-green alga die-off, that contributes to:

Atmospheric oxygen deficiency (remember where you heard this first)

Heat pollution

Black hole in orbit inside the Earth (chomp chomp)

Alien attack / takeover / adverse cultural effect

Proton decay / maximum entropy / Big Crunch (whatever)

Worried by any of this? Bob Heinlein once said that the human race had all its eggs in one basket - the Earth. Perhaps now is the time to get off-planet.