General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Are human beings an evolutionary mistake? [View all]Silent3
(15,223 posts)
on this planet and surviving to spread around the solar system, or even the galaxy.
Our sun is on an inexorable path toward turning into a red giant star, one which could possibly engulf the Earth. Even if the Sun settles for merely swallowing up Mercury and Venus, the heating of the Sun well before it starts to swell into a red giant will make the Earth totally inhospitable to life in around one billion years, and far more hostile to life than mere global warming well before that time.
At this point, for all of the ecological destruction we humans are causing, were far from close to snuffing out all life. Collapsing civilization (not to be confused with life itself) is well within our grasp, as well as causing a devastating mass extinction, but life in general will go on, and probably some much smaller human population too.
We might get a few shots at spreading life beyond our one planet even if we turn out to have a bad knack for self-destruction.