Reuters, via CNN notes that a professor puts the odds of the world coming to an end at 50-50. They start out by noting that the odds are getting worse and worse as man pursues technological advancement.

The demise of civilization has been predicted since it began, but the odds of keeping Planet Earth alive and well are getting worse amid a breakneck pace of scientific advances, according to Martin Rees, Britain's honorary astronomer royal.

Being Reuters, they couldn't resist getting this little bit of liberal bias in at the end.

He also suggested better efforts to "reduce the number of people who feel excluded or otherwise motivated to cause harm."

Personally, I think the professor is way off. The odds of the world coming to an end are 100%. We just don't know when it will happen. Ask any astronomer, and he'll tell you that eventually our sun will peter out and go nova or supernova. Either way, the earth is screwed. All the recycling in the world won't prevent that.