Human Extinction - How long can we survive?
- Thread starter Leppy
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I'd say humanity has another 200-300 years before things start going south and our history of wrecking the planet and screwing ourselves over catches up with us.
Unless our political systems and priorities are reexamined we will continue with the same old problems that will snowball until we reach the point of no return and by the time real disaster stares us in the face and politicans start thinking more long term rather then short term to please the masses it will be too little, too late. Cue whatever big disaster happens or maybe just ww3 or something.
The extinction of the human race will likely follow in what is sure to be a slow process due to changing ecological conditions and various natural disasters, most of the survivors gradually dieing off as the harshness of survival without civilization catches up with them.
Some pockets of humans might survive this extinction process somehow (assuming earth or just the place these pockets are located in are habitable to humans still) and it will fall on them to rebuild society. But more realistically I think the last human survivors will die a sad death, probably huddled together as they vainly try to conserve body heat in the ruins of what used to be a landmark or monument in that country.
Unless our political systems and priorities are reexamined we will continue with the same old problems that will snowball until we reach the point of no return and by the time real disaster stares us in the face and politicans start thinking more long term rather then short term to please the masses it will be too little, too late. Cue whatever big disaster happens or maybe just ww3 or something.
The extinction of the human race will likely follow in what is sure to be a slow process due to changing ecological conditions and various natural disasters, most of the survivors gradually dieing off as the harshness of survival without civilization catches up with them.
Some pockets of humans might survive this extinction process somehow (assuming earth or just the place these pockets are located in are habitable to humans still) and it will fall on them to rebuild society. But more realistically I think the last human survivors will die a sad death, probably huddled together as they vainly try to conserve body heat in the ruins of what used to be a landmark or monument in that country.
There's no more "australias", which means there's no isolated landmasses where evolution is necessary for a species to adapt and survive. Natural selection as we know it no longer applies to human beings, and never will in us as a whole species.Strazdas said:
The only way to make it apply to us again is to strand an small portion of the population on an isolated planet or similar and have them adapt to that planet over a hundred thousand years without access to any of our modern technology that makes survival easier for us.
there are hundreds of possibilities, so let me Quote Red Dwarf.
"he'd asked Holly to turn the ship around and head back to earth. maybe the human race was extinct, maybe they'd evolved into a race of super-beings. maybe they'd wiped one another out in some stupid war and the ants had taken over. but where else was there to go?
earth was home. he had to find out if it stil existed, even if it did take another three nillion years to get back. so he'd decided to go back into stasis. wat else was there to do? he certainly had no intention of hanging around with only a highly neurotic dead man for company."
ants, war, evolving further, the mayas being right, there are tons of possibiities.
"he'd asked Holly to turn the ship around and head back to earth. maybe the human race was extinct, maybe they'd evolved into a race of super-beings. maybe they'd wiped one another out in some stupid war and the ants had taken over. but where else was there to go?
earth was home. he had to find out if it stil existed, even if it did take another three nillion years to get back. so he'd decided to go back into stasis. wat else was there to do? he certainly had no intention of hanging around with only a highly neurotic dead man for company."
ants, war, evolving further, the mayas being right, there are tons of possibiities.
I reckon we have another few hundred years left before the shit hits the fan for the very last time. Will it be due to nuclear warfare? Possibly. I somehow doubt that any nation would be stupid enough to actually go through with it, simply because they'd put themselves at great risk. I suppose it could come down to Global Warming, but I somehow doubt something massive would happen anytime soon.
No, it isn't. You can do it much the same way that you recycle water, and the entire city of London does that.Strazdas said:
Most people might think that, but it's not what the term means.Strazdas said:
And, humanity would survive. Radioactivity is going to be a concern, yes, but it's not going to magically sterilise the planet or dwestroy the ecosystem.
And massively reshape the planet? Yes, a few big mountain ranges where people have built bunkers won't be there, an awful lot of buildings won't be standing, but that's nothing on a planetary scale.
A radiation burst, from a supernova or something? Or our own sun?Supertegwyn said:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma-ray_burst#Rates_and_potential_effects_on_life_on_Earth
Unless we literally make the planet uninhabitable (like strip the atmosphere or melt the planets crust uninhabitable) in the next 100, possibly 200 years then technology will have advanced sufficiently that the human race will be basically impossible to extinguish. As it is now even all out full on nuclear extermination of the planet wouldn't wipe it clean of human life and technology and knowledge is so prevalent that even a handful of survivors could rebuild our race in a fraction of the time it took us first time round. You go from Mesopotamia to Modern in a few hundred years at most.