Worried about Earth's future? Well, the outlook is worse than even scientists can grasp

[G_j]

https://phys.org/news/2021-01-earth-future-outlook-worse-scientists.html

Anyone with even a passing interest in the global environment knows all is not well. But just how bad is the situation? Our new paper shows the outlook for life on Earth is more dire than is generally understood.

The research published today reviews more than 150 studies to produce a stark summary of the state of the natural world. We outline the likely future trends in biodiversity decline, mass extinction, climate disruption and planetary toxification. We clarify the gravity of the human predicament and provide a timely snapshot of the crises that must be addressed now.

The problems, all tied to human consumption and population growth, will almost certainly worsen over coming decades. The damage will be felt for centuries and threatens the survival of all species, including our own.

Our paper was authored by 17 leading scientists, including those from Flinders University, Stanford University and the University of California, Los Angeles. Our message might not be popular, and indeed is frightening. But scientists must be candid and accurate if humanity is to understand the enormity of the challenges we face.


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https://phys.org/news/2021-01-earth-future-outlook-worse-scientists.html

[FirstLight]

1. we're so screwn...

😕

[Irish_Dem]

3. This is why Musk is hell bent on colonizing Mars

The elite has an escape pod after they trash this planet.

[Auggie]

2. Few address the elephant in the room:

population growth

[Buckeye_Democrat]

4. I saw a study from a few years ago which showed...

... the estimated reduction of CO2 emissions from various activities.

Having NO CHILDREN was easily at the top. Much more impactful than never driving a car, never flying on airplanes, etc.

Edit: I posted the study on DU back then, and it mostly just generated angry responses. Oh well.

[Auggie]

5. I guess that's among the hottest button issue out there

Well, humans won't be the first animal on earth to be stung by excessive procreation. Thing is, we're supposed to be smart enough to know better.

Sorry to hear about the angry responses. Tell people they can't have something and immediately they want more.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

6. Yeah, it was a bit disappointing.

Not all of the replies were like that, of course.

It was even more telling to me because I never included any urgings for people to stop making babies. Just the study itself.

[wackadoo wabbit]

17. Unfortunately, most people are adverse to hearing the truth

Last edited Thu Jan 14, 2021, 11:41 PM - Edit history (1)

edit: In fact, synchronistically, I just stumbled on this quote by Friedrich Nietzsche on a different site:

Sometimes people don't want to hear the truth because they don't want their illusions destroyed.

[marie999]

7. As far as humans fixing the problem, forget it. It just won't happen.

The only thing that will work is a virus or some other form that kills off billions of people. I am not a scientist so I don't know how many billion it will take.

[Kaleva]

8. Nature will correct the problem. Starvation, disease, fighting for limited resources...

are the methods nature keeps all living things in balance.

[Silent3]

9. Depends what you call a "correction"

A "correction" can still be an enormous tragedy, and not just for our species, and "balance" can be pretty ugly.

As long as bacteria remain in some deep fissure somewhere, life will likely re-emerge on Earth even after a cosmic-scale disaster. But after that kind of death and destruction, a new, truly diverse and thriving environment might not manage to emerge before the Sun gets too hot for life to survive here.

Any disaster that animals of any sort survive, humans will probably survive. The human population might drop from 7.5 billion to 7.5 million or less, but I'm confident that we're so adaptable that, while civilization might collapse, we're harder to kill off than cockroaches.

[Kaleva]

10. When I walk out in the woods, I can see total war.

It's a fight for survival and the focus is on the survival of the species and not individual specimens.

[marie999]

12. Our sun has about 5 billion years left, but in about 1 billion years it will be too hot on Earth

to sustain life. You are right that until that happens humans should be able to survive. So we need to be able to get to other planets in our galaxy and then to other galaxies but unless we can get to another universe within 10 trillion years all the stars will go out and everything in this universe will die. But I am not going to lose any sleep of it.

[Blue_true]

14. Gee, and here I was thinking about May.

[Blue_true]

15. Sometimes, cockroaches may be smarter. nt

[roamer65]

19. ..

World War III.

[Quixote1818]

11. I am glad I didn't have kids and have to experience possible horrors 50 years from now. nt

[Blue_true]

13. The Earth will be fine, until the Sun takes it out in around 4 billion years from

now. Us, well that is a different story.

[roamer65]

18. In our present orbit about 1 billion years.

The Goldilocks zone will keep sliding outward as the Sun’s luminosity grows. Eventually we won’t be in it anymore and most life will cease on Earth.

[Blue_true]

20. My guess? Oh, before I start, I am not following you around DU.

Last edited Fri Jan 15, 2021, 09:53 PM - Edit history (1)

Living things are very adaptive. What will happen as the Goldilocks zone moves farther from the Sun is living things will slowly adapt to the hotter temperature, it is not like the hotter temperature that pushes out the Goldilocks zone will happen overnight, or even over a few million years. Some life will die off, that has been happening since life first showed up on Earth, but it will be replaced by other life that can tolerate hotter temperature and less water. Hell, we may finally get lizard people on Earth, but they will just be lizard people, not shape-shifters that are trying to befuddle Trump (not that would be a expeditious use of their time, since Trump does a good enough job of befuddling himself).

Ok, I have had enough. My brain in semi-fried, must have been hit by some stray sunlight. Goodnight, time for me to prepare for bed.

[roamer65]

22. Very possible.

But we know where it is eventually all headed.

The Earth will be eventually consumed by the Sun, or will be hotter than Mercury is now.

Sleep well!

[DontBelieveEastisEas]

16. Environmental Regulations

This is why Trump gets the blame for any increase of the economy that was accomplished by harming the environment.

[misanthrope]

23. All it takes is eyes, ears and a brain

All of this has been covered and indicated and shown in the last century. The long arc is there. All we had to do was pay attention and decide to learn.

[UTUSN]

24. K&R