A new study conducted by researchers at the University of Oxford has found that humans have a higher risk of going extinct next year. As per the study report, humans have a 1 in 14,000 chance of going extinct any given year, and this possibility is more than an individual does being attacked by a shark (1 in 650,000) or struck by lightning (1 in 700,000).
Scientists in their study report noted that this possibility of extinction is due to natural causes. The study team also suggested that this risk will get elevated when manmade threats like nuclear weapons and drastic climate changes are added to the calculation, The Sun reports.
During the study, researchers analyzed fossils and archaeological data from artifacts 350,000 years old and tried to determine the effects of natural disasters like asteroid impacts super volcanic eruptions on the survival of human beings.
Last year, a similar study conducted by researchers at the University of Rochester had noted that humans may go through a soft landing which is basically a gradual die-off or a full-blown collapse where the entire human civilization will get wiped off from the planet's surface.
As the fear of a possible human extinction due to asteroid hits looms up, James A. Green, a professor of public international law at England's University of Reading believes that nuclear weapons are necessary to protect the earth from deep space threats. Green claimed that these weapons of mass destruction could turn crucial when humans try to protect the planet from doomsday asteroid hits that may happen in the future.
On the other hand, space expert Dr Iain McDonald strongly assures that the earth will be hit by a doomsday asteroid one day or the other. As per McDonald, devastating events like asteroid hits are not confined to the past, and it will happen in the future too.