> Not a bad contribution to science starting from a sci-fi premise!
1. Ancient civilization enters industrial and post-industrial era.
2. Carbon levels rise, so do global temperatures.
3. In a desperate attempt to save themselves they try geo-engineering by slamming a massive asteroid in the too hot and thus unpopulated area of Yucatan.
Maybe the Earth-based technological civilization attracted the attention of a space-faring civilization, who dropped an asteroid to wipe out the Earth civilization (successfully, as it turns out).
Which means maybe we should be a bit more careful about bleating our existence out into the universe these days...
People who had this thought have also liked "The Dark Forest" and "Death's End" by Liu Cixin :) (These are part 2 and 3 in the "Three Body Problem" series.)
"We've been sitting in our tree chirping like foolish birds for over a century now, wondering why no other birds answered. The galactic skies are full of hawks, that's why. Planetisms that don't know enough to keep quiet, get eaten".
As far as geo-engineering goes, I think what they'd be wanting to do is cause a super-volcano or three. You really don't want to be pulling asteroids down - just a couple of finely place nukes will do. Get a volcano going, put a few tons of sulphur in the air and you have a nice cooling effect. Just be careful of the unintended tsunami. Should probably just evacuate Iceland and keep popping the volcanoes until it's cool again.
Is there any theory that suposes this might happened, on a small scale, and the temps (and crust) warm? Could that loosen things up, so to speak, and trigger more volcanic activity?
1. Ancient civilization enters industrial and post-industrial era.
2. Carbon levels rise, so do global temperatures.
3. In a desperate attempt to save themselves they try geo-engineering by slamming a massive asteroid in the too hot and thus unpopulated area of Yucatan.
4. Goes wrong.
I can see it working as sci-fi novel