American Apocalypse

5 Likeliest Scenarios To Topple The US

By Daniel Finkelstein
August 13, 2009
Courtesy Of The Times Online

Which is your favourite apocalyptic scenario? If you really had to choose would it be the intergalactic stand-off? Zombie plague?

Over on Slate, Josh Levin and Chris Wilson have been asking people to choose - from of an exhaustive list of 144 potential apocalypses - the scenarios that strike them if not as the best, then as the most likely to precipitate America's downfall.

More than half a million people have taken part (with, interestingly, substantial interest coming from Russia) and the results are out.

The five biggest threats to America’s continued existence are popularly believed to be…

1. Loose Nukes: "Taliban fighters wrest nuclear weapons from a destabilized Pakistan.

"Or al-Qaida acquires a small arsenal of nukes from a disintegrating Russia"

2. Israel-Arab War: “All-out mayhem in the Middle East as Egypt, Iran, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and more go to war.

"The United States moves to protect Israel and gets sucked into a generation-long conflict that saps the national will and treasury.”

3. Peak Oil: —"Petroleum production reaches terminal decline.

"Oil becomes too expensive to extract, and alternative energies can't maintain our fossil-fuel-dependent lifestyle"

4. China Unloads U.S Treasurys: “Unwilling to finance any more of America's debt, China dumps its investment in American Treasury securities and buys up gold.

"With America a lousy investment, there aren't any other buyers out there. The country goes bankrupt.”

5. Antibiotic Resistance: —"As a result of factory farming and spiking sales of antibacterial hand soap, superstrains of bacteria develop that are resistant to medicine"

Antibiotic Resistance, by the way, beat global warming or economic meltdown in the popular vote. You can see the full list, ranked from most to least popular, here.

"Choose Your Own Apocalypse" Scenarios, Ranked From Most To Least Popular

Courtesy Of SLATE

1. Loose Nukes
2. Peak Oil
3. Antibiotic Resistance
4. China Unloads U.S. Treasurys
5. Israel-Arab War
6. Obesity
7. Peak Water
8. Overpopulation
9. Wealth Gap
10. Synthesized Super Virus
11. Red vs. Blue
12. Decadence
13. Theocracy
14. Rising Sea Levels
15. Dirty Bombs
16. Megadrought
17. Laziness
18. Default on Debt
19. Nine Nations
20. Socialist Revolution
21. Electromagnetic Pulse
22. Suicidal Tyrant
23. Corporate Takeover
24. Obama as God
25. Supervolcano
26. Dec. 21, 2012
27. Food Supply
28. The Rapture
29. Big Brother
30. Alien Invasion
31. Math and Science
32. Asteroid
33. Climate Migration
34. Deficit Spending
35. Christianity
36. Russia Hits the Button
37. Voluntary Human Extinction
38. Hyperinflation
39. Gay Marriage
40. Military Overstretch
41. Robot Overlords
42. Racial Warfare
43. Intelligent Design
44. Ocean Acidification
45. Canada Fails
46. Mexico Fails
47. Patriot Act
48. The Matrix
49. Unitary Executive
50. Decline of Civic Spirit
51. Gray Goo
52. Militant Islam
53. North American Union
54. Oldocracy
55. Supercollider
56. Heat Shock
57. Isolation of Elites
58. Pax Sinica
59. "The Bubba Effect"
60. Super-AIDS
61. Hurricanes
62. Mercenary Armies
63. Floods
64. Swine Flu
65. Ice Age
66. Modified Organisms
67. India and Pakistan
68. End of English
69. Information War
70. State Bankruptcies
71. Oil 2.0
72. World Currency
73. The End of History
74. Neo-Humans
75. Outer Space Emigration
76. Nationalized Industries
77. One-Party Rule
78. Mass Incarceration
79. Cascadia and Novacadia
80. Cronyism
81. Globalization
82. Social Security
83. Bottled Water
84. Isolationism
85. Rods From God
86. State Sovereignty Movements
87. Privatization
88. World Government
89. Suburban Slums
90. Complexity
91. Internal Guerrilla Warfare
92. Push-Button Warfare
93. New Madrid Earthquake
94. Tropical Diseases
95. Alaska and Hawaii
96. Texas Secession
97. La República del Norte
98. Foreign Invasion
99. Media Piracy
100. Geographical Sorting
101. Abandonment
102. Axis of Evil
103. Wall Street Cleverness
104. Food Contamination
105. Al-Qaida
106. Multiculturalism
107. Vermont Independence
108. Pax Europa
109. Europe Fails
110. Climate Wars
111. Cars
112. Bureaucracy
113. Alien Species
114. Nuclear Waste
115. Space Harvesting
116. Wildfires
117. Unilateralism
118. Money Virus
119. Illegal Immigration
120. Space Attacks
121. Cloning
122. Military Coup
123. Transnationalism
124. FDIC Fails
125. Smallpox
126. Cell Phones
127. Pesticides
128. Tax Revolts
129. Gerrymandering
130. Geoengineering
131. Tribalism
132. Diet
133. Space Race
134. Geothermal Energy
135. Neo-Colonialism
136. Transition Cities
137. Drug Boom
138. Space Debris
139. End of Homeownership
140. Opt-In Government
141. Emigration
142. Declining Military Standards
143. Pax Indica
144. Anthrax