E.L.E.

ELE is what we know as an Extinction Level Event, an event so catastrophic it can wipe out an entire species or several species at the same time. Many disasters can be catalogued as ELEs, for example a solar flare of the right magnitude could render our atmosphere useless forever. The classic one is a meteor impact. The image of a dinosaur raising his eyes to the sky to spot a flaming ball heading toward the planet is at the same time enticing and haunting. This is so true that there are dozens of films inspired in the possibility of these events ever happening with Deep Impact being one of the most convincing and better researched (also one of the few where they use the  ELE term). 

Apparently the chance of a meteor ever colliding with Earth is not that unlikely. There are millions of objects roaming the Solar System and many can potentially start a collision course and impact Earth. In fact it happens quite often only that these objects are so tiny that they are destroyed by the atmosphere when they enter (because of the friction when falling). We call them shooting stars. But there are others larger and thus more threatening. They mainly come from two sources: the Asteroid Belt existing between Mars and Jupiter and the Oort Cloud that surrounds the Solar System, a group of dust and more asteroids also the most likely place where comets come from. Some scientists call these meteors Serial Killers. I believe the term is not right since a serial killer chooses his victims carefully. Mass Murderers would be more appropriate.  ELEs have happened in the past of our planet several times, so often in fact that they may have contributed to shape the world as we know it. Perhaps one eliminated the dinosaurs thus allowing mammals to claim Earth for themselves (some say dinosaurs did not go extinct but were forced to evolve and now they are still with us in the form of birds).Should we be grateful or reluctant to accept this present?

They say an ELE is happening at the moment (not all of them occur abruptly) and the cause is us. We have been systematically eliminating other species, seriously compromising the natural balance of our homeworld and even other humans. We have become the dominant species in this planet and in turn we have stopped evolving because there´s no need for that: we adapt the environment to our needs. That's an unatural occurrence since species have to evolve in order to continue existing.  Perhaps another ELE is brewing and it´s right because we´re not evolving as we should. Mother Nature might be wise and caring but is also ruthless. When our time comes we´ll have nothing else to do but sit down and patiently watch until our ELE reaches us.