As the impact of global warming becomes more obvious, you might expect countries to step up climate action and preparation, but we’re seeing the opposite happen
David Kipping introduced me to the idea that the window of opportunity for intelligent life may be far smaller than we used to think. It’s a companion to the Rare Earth hypothesis of having so many variables that MIGHT need to exist to make things work, but assuming all conditions are good for what we consider hospitable, how long a planet has before the star changes and how soon basic life starts is not that long cosmically.
Simply put, new life after whatever this climate run stabilized to won’t have a billion years before the Sun begins to change. Not turn into a red giant or dwarf, those are far off still, but it will begin its path towards those long before the actual event, and conditions here will worsen for a teeming biosphere.
To quote “Hamilton”, life only gets probably one shot. Maybe two or three if it’s fast, but we can probably count a few of the mass extinctions that set things back for that.
If humans didn’t have sufficient numbers and intelligence to take advantage of the stable climate of the last hundred thousand years we’d either be extinct or hunter gatherers.
Now that we’ve used up most of the accessible fossil fuels another species won’t be able to industrialize, especially in the next billion years before the sun starts to warm the earth beyond habitability.
David Kipping introduced me to the idea that the window of opportunity for intelligent life may be far smaller than we used to think. It’s a companion to the Rare Earth hypothesis of having so many variables that MIGHT need to exist to make things work, but assuming all conditions are good for what we consider hospitable, how long a planet has before the star changes and how soon basic life starts is not that long cosmically.
Simply put, new life after whatever this climate run stabilized to won’t have a billion years before the Sun begins to change. Not turn into a red giant or dwarf, those are far off still, but it will begin its path towards those long before the actual event, and conditions here will worsen for a teeming biosphere.
To quote “Hamilton”, life only gets probably one shot. Maybe two or three if it’s fast, but we can probably count a few of the mass extinctions that set things back for that.
If humans didn’t have sufficient numbers and intelligence to take advantage of the stable climate of the last hundred thousand years we’d either be extinct or hunter gatherers.
Now that we’ve used up most of the accessible fossil fuels another species won’t be able to industrialize, especially in the next billion years before the sun starts to warm the earth beyond habitability.
Apathetic bloody planet. I’ve no sympathy at all.
Then there is no point, and we should probably not care that much.