It’s safe to say not in our lifetime. Our biggest threat is from man made problems so hopefully there are enough scientists in the future to overcome them.
I’m not sure. I agree with DJ that we’ll need lots of scientists to help shape our future and that it won’t end soon.
I DO know that there have been around 7 dates in the last 20 years when the world was predicted to end, doomsday style, but then – it didn’t.
When the clock ticked over from 1999 to 2000 was a big moment, and my birthday last year (21 Dec 2012) was another one the media made lots of predictions about. But the sun rose the next day and we got on with life.
In the long term (like several billion years from now), the sun will eventually start using up all of its hydrogen fuel, and will start cooling off and expanding. For a while the decrease in temperature will be matched by the expansion, so life could probably continue on earth at least a little while. But eventually the sun will expand significantly, and will be close enough to earth that life will be impossible.
So that is the upper end of the range for possible life on Earth. Whether we get off the planet in time, or whether we do something stupid like blow ourselves up before then — well, that is the responsibility of each successive generation to try to resolve!
It’s safe to say not in our lifetime. Our biggest threat is from man made problems so hopefully there are enough scientists in the future to overcome them.
1
I’m not sure. I agree with DJ that we’ll need lots of scientists to help shape our future and that it won’t end soon.
I DO know that there have been around 7 dates in the last 20 years when the world was predicted to end, doomsday style, but then – it didn’t.
When the clock ticked over from 1999 to 2000 was a big moment, and my birthday last year (21 Dec 2012) was another one the media made lots of predictions about. But the sun rose the next day and we got on with life.
1
In the long term (like several billion years from now), the sun will eventually start using up all of its hydrogen fuel, and will start cooling off and expanding. For a while the decrease in temperature will be matched by the expansion, so life could probably continue on earth at least a little while. But eventually the sun will expand significantly, and will be close enough to earth that life will be impossible.
So that is the upper end of the range for possible life on Earth. Whether we get off the planet in time, or whether we do something stupid like blow ourselves up before then — well, that is the responsibility of each successive generation to try to resolve!
1