Countdown to Doomsday is an American documentary

Documentary

A documentary is a creative work of non-fiction, including:* Documentary film, including television* Radio documentary* Documentary photographyRelated terms include:...

 television film that originally aired in 2006 on the Sci Fi Channel

Syfy

Syfy , formerly known as the Sci-Fi Channel and SCI FI, is an American cable television channel featuring science fiction, supernatural, fantasy, reality, paranormal, wrestling, and horror programming. Launched on September 24, 1992, it is part of the entertainment conglomerate NBCUniversal, a...

. The program features various risks to civilization, humans and planet Earth

Risks to civilization, humans and planet Earth

Various existential risks could threaten humankind as a whole, have adverse consequences for the course of human civilization, or even cause the end of planet Earth.-Types of risks:...

. Hosted by Matt Lauer

Matt Lauer

Matthew Todd "Matt" Lauer . is an American television journalist best known as the host of NBC's The Today Show since 1997. He was previously a news anchor in New York and a local talk-show host in Boston, Philadelphia, Providence and Richmond...

, the documentary features 10 different scenarios that could bring an end to all life on Earth with interviews by Al Gore

Al Gore

Albert Arnold "Al" Gore, Jr. served as the 45th Vice President of the United States , under President Bill Clinton. He was the Democratic Party's nominee for President in the 2000 U.S. presidential election....

, Michio Kaku

Michio Kaku

is an American theoretical physicist, the Henry Semat Professor of Theoretical Physics in the City College of New York of City University of New York, the co-founder of string field theory, and a "communicator" and "popularizer" of science...

, Daniel H. Wilson

Daniel H. Wilson

Daniel H. Wilson is a New York Times best selling author, television host and robotics engineer. He currently resides in Portland, Oregon. His most recent novel, published on June 7, 2011, is Robopocalypse....

, and others, and clips from various films and television programs.

Scenarios

The ten doomsday scenarios considered in the film include:

• Supervolcano
  Supervolcano
  A supervolcano is a volcano capable of producing a volcanic eruption with an ejecta volume greater than 1,000 cubic kilometers . This is thousands of times larger than most historic volcanic eruptions. Supervolcanoes can occur when magma in the Earth rises into the crust from a hotspot but is...
  
  : Mount Vesuvius, Italy
  Mount Vesuvius
  Mount Vesuvius is a stratovolcano in the Gulf of Naples, Italy, about east of Naples and a short distance from the shore. It is the only volcano on the European mainland to have erupted within the last hundred years, although it is not currently erupting...
  
  , Cumbre Vieja, Canary Islands
  Cumbre Vieja
  Cumbre Vieja is an active volcanic ridge on the volcanic ocean island of Isla de La Palma in the Canary Islands.This ridge trends in an approximate north-south direction and covers the southern third of the island. It is lined by several volcanic craters....
  
  , Yellowstone, USA
  Yellowstone Caldera
  The Yellowstone Caldera is the volcanic caldera located in Yellowstone National Park in the United States, sometimes referred to as the Yellowstone Supervolcano. The caldera is located in the northwest corner of Wyoming, in which the vast majority of the park is contained. The major features of...
  
  ; interviews with Bill McGuire (Benfield Hazard Research Centre, London), Jake Lowenstern (USGS); clips from Dante's Peak
  Dante's Peak
  Dante's Peak is a 1997 disaster film directed by Roger Donaldson, written by Leslie Bohem, and starring Pierce Brosnan, Linda Hamilton and Charles Hallahan. The film portrays the effect of a volcano erupting near a small town in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. The film is loosely...
  
  
• Asteroid impact
  Impact event
  An impact event is the collision of a large meteorite, asteroid, comet, or other celestial object with the Earth or another planet. Throughout recorded history, hundreds of minor impact events have been reported, with some occurrences causing deaths, injuries, property damage or other significant...
  
  : interviews with Clark R. Chapman, Ed Lu
  Ed Lu
  Edward Tsang "Ed" Lu , is an American physicist and a former NASA astronaut. He is a veteran of two Space Shuttle missions and an extended stay aboard the International Space Station.-Education:...
  
  , David Morrison
  David Morrison
  Lieutenant General David Lindsay Morrison AO is a senior officer within the Australian Army, currently serving in the position of Chief of Army.-Early life and career:...
  
  , Dana Rohrabacher
  Dana Rohrabacher
  Dana Tyron Rohrabacher is the U.S. Representative for , and previously the 45th and 42nd, serving since 1989. He is a member of the Republican Party...
  
  ; clips from Deep Impact
  Deep Impact (film)
  Deep Impact is a 1998 science-fiction disaster-drama film released by Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks in the United States on May 8, 1998. The film was directed by Mimi Leder and stars Robert Duvall, Elijah Wood, Téa Leoni, and Morgan Freeman...
  
  
• Global pandemic
  Pandemic
  A pandemic is an epidemic of infectious disease that is spreading through human populations across a large region; for instance multiple continents, or even worldwide. A widespread endemic disease that is stable in terms of how many people are getting sick from it is not a pandemic...
  
  : avian bird flu
• Mass extinction
• Giant Solar flare
  Solar flare
  A solar flare is a sudden brightening observed over the Sun surface or the solar limb, which is interpreted as a large energy release of up to 6 × 1025 joules of energy . The flare ejects clouds of electrons, ions, and atoms through the corona into space. These clouds typically reach Earth a day...
  
  
• Nuclear terrorism
  Nuclear terrorism
  Nuclear terrorism denotes the use, or threat of the use, of nuclear weapons or radiological weapons in acts of terrorism, includingattacks against facilities where radioactive materials are present...
  
  
• Global warming
  Global warming
  Global warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...
  
  : interviews with Al Gore
  Al Gore
  Albert Arnold "Al" Gore, Jr. served as the 45th Vice President of the United States , under President Bill Clinton. He was the Democratic Party's nominee for President in the 2000 U.S. presidential election....
  
  
• Gamma-ray burst
• Machine rebellion
  Machine Rule
  The concept of machine rule is a common theme in science fiction stories and film, in which an artificially created lifeform takes over the naturally evolved beings that created them....
  
  : interviews with Daniel H. Wilson
  Daniel H. Wilson
  Daniel H. Wilson is a New York Times best selling author, television host and robotics engineer. He currently resides in Portland, Oregon. His most recent novel, published on June 7, 2011, is Robopocalypse....
  
   and Kevin Warwick
  Kevin Warwick
  Kevin Warwick is a British scientist and professor of cybernetics at the University of Reading, Reading, Berkshire, United Kingdom...
  
  ; clips from The Terminator and I, Robot
  I, Robot (film)
  I, Robot is a 2004 science-fiction action film directed by Alex Proyas. The screenplay was written by Jeff Vintar, Akiva Goldsman and Hillary Seitz, and is very loosely based on Isaac Asimov's short-story collection of the same name. Will Smith stars in the lead role of the film as Detective Del...
  
  
• Alien invasion
  Alien invasion
  The alien invasion is a common theme in science fiction stories and film, in which extraterrestrial life invades Earth either to exterminate and supplant human life, enslave it under a colonial system, harvest humans for food, steal the planet's resources, or destroy the planet altogether.The...
  
  : interviews with Michio Kaku
  Michio Kaku
  is an American theoretical physicist, the Henry Semat Professor of Theoretical Physics in the City College of New York of City University of New York, the co-founder of string field theory, and a "communicator" and "popularizer" of science...
  
  , Seth Shostak
  Seth Shostak
  Seth Shostak is an American astronomer. He grew up in Arlington, VA and earned his physics degree from Princeton University and a Ph.D...
  
  ; clips from Battlestar Galactica
  Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series)
  Battlestar Galactica is an American military science fiction television series, and part of the Battlestar Galactica franchise. The show was developed by Ronald D. Moore as a re-imagining of the 1978 Battlestar Galactica television series created by Glen A. Larson...