Respuesta :
A new asteroid, similar to the size of the asteroid that hit the Earth at the end of the Cretaceous period, which handily obliterated the then-dominant species (dinosaurs being one of them), will now hit the populated, modern, civilized Earth.
In the previous impact, all life wasn’t wiped out. Many species were adversely affected, but many survived, and indeed, thrived due to the absence of the then-dominant species being removed.
Certainly in our modern world, and how much we depend on global agriculture, there would be a massive die-off of many people (not necessarily just by the direct hit of the comet impact, but by the after effects as well).
It would cause a massive crater, and eject global-cooling debris into the atmosphere, and sterilize the impact site. Agriculture would be brought to its knees, and major famines would occur.
A report made 4 years ago indicated that life re-established itself in the impact zone (of the Cretaceous impacting asteroid) after 30,000 years (which the article considered exceeding rapid). 30,000 years of anything would not recover fast enough in the modern day. If you think about it, ALL of modern human history happened within the last 10,000 years (and you could argue that is was much less than that).
I do think that some life would survive (using the impact from the asteroid at the K-T boundary as an analog), but these conditions are different:
Since the impact site is unknown, densely populated centers are at risk - however if it hit in exactly the same place, the population of Mexico and Central America and the Southern Tier of the US could be eliminated (approx 300,000,000 people) just from the blast effects and impact debris.
Population of the earth went from zero humans (in the prior impact) to over seven billion living today.
Simple systems are flexible and resilient and would most likely survive. Complex systems would collapse and would be the hardest to rebuild. Food production will continue in certain regions. Food distribution will be severely affected. Disease and pestilence would re-emerge, and public health would suffer, adding to the death toll.
Military adventurism would increase (the “have-nots” vs “haves”). Social order may get shoved back to our tribal roots.
Would it be a total loss? How much life would survive?Difficult to predict - it could go either way.
Think about this: How long would it take to recover? I don't think we could or would recover. Just as in the earlier strike, there would be no going back.
