How long the earth would last?

Remove all ads!

The tsunami in Oceania; typhoons in China and Japan; earthquakes in Japan; Katrina and many others in USA; flood in Central America; earthquake in Pakistan; did I miss something else?
What's happening in the world? Is this the price for 'progress'?
A month ago, there were 9 hurricans in Barcelona and proximity; plus 4 flood; extreme drought; neverending forrest fires...
3 hurricans in north Argentina, 6 in Uruguay...
All that in places where such things never happened before...
What are we doing wrong?
I just keep thinking that one of these days the planet will break apart in pieces.

 

Well, it isn't necessarily what we are doing wrong (although, we are doing ALOT of things wrong, but i won't get into that). It could just be a thing of nature.

Or, it could be global warming. The icecaps could be melting, raising the water level and throwing off the ocean currents, creating more hurricanes. And if it isn't already happening now, it will eventually.

 

Don't forget that we all now have access to the international medias. Ever hear of the great Panamanian flood of 1732? Neither have I...

 

Truth is though that despite the easier access to global media (meaning faster access to every new possible on this planet), it is true that our inteference with the nature to make her more "suitable" to our needs has not coped well with nature itself.
It is true that earths climate has always followed a circle of very frozen eras, followed by dry eras. But maybe we as a human factor have now managed to speed up the pace.
And this is something that its outcome is unknown to everyone. Noone really knows what will really happen if...
Everyone is making speculations

 

How long would earth last for you or
how long would earth last for itself?

 

... for itself.

I remember 6 or 7 years back, we used to have spring, summer, autumn and winter, and they lasted their respective 3 months, and they were the way it supposed to be; but with every passing year, autumn was almost disappearing, so 2 or 3 years back we just start to have 2 months of cold weather and the rest of the year, heat. August was a cold month back then, now is like summer; last year we had just 2 cold weeks, the rest of the winter was almost like autumn or even spring. In that area where I used to live, this year had 3 hurricans, and as far as know, never happened before.
I guess nature is defending itself from us or from polution, smoke, etc.

 

Anybody here who claims to have noticed changes in the earth's climate is deluding themselves. Firstly, most of us/you are very young and can therefore only remember a few years of seasons. Secondly, even if some of us were 100 and could remember every one of those years, that would still be a tiny period of time in the grand scheme of things.

The only evidence I am going to accept in this thread is scientific data, not a bunch of vague comments about how the weather used to be so much better in the good old days.

 

From a Religious standpoint, the prophecies in the Book of Revelation are coming true. All these Earthquakes and hurricanes, Tornadoes and Tsunamis, Volcanoes along with the wars and famines are all signs that the end is near...

 

Actually Harbourboy, I have noticed lots of changes, such as less snow in the last 5 years, less rain etc. Also seals and puffins (only 25% of puffins survived on Rathlind Island this year alone because of warmer tempatures) in Ireland are moving further up north, as the waters are too warm for them, and lets not get started on our cod supplies.

 

I think when you look at the big picture -- as in geological terms -- this is all pretty standard stuff. In fact, things have been much, much worse in the past. Get in a time machine and go back 1 million or 1 billion years and I'm sure you'd be greeted by frequent earthquakes, volcanos, massive, deadly pockets of natural gas seeping out of cracks in the earth.

I'm sure cave men 30,000 years ago faced similar extremes. And like many of us, turned to their imaginary gods for some explanation. I'm not saying Global Warming is a myth, but I suspect that the way many blame every little thing on it is as bad as people saying this is all Revelation coming true.

Ultimately, the earth could care less. We are but fleas upon her backside and she'll notice our passing about as much as she noticed the extinction of countless trillions of other species over the last 1 billion years.

 

The Earth will last a lot longer than us. Natural "disasters" are only disatrous for us. To the Earth it just serves to shape new landscapes. Life is expendable and goes in cycles.

 

Somebody told me a swarm of locusts was heading towards the Campbell's soup canning plant. If I were you, I would grab some garlic!

 

Eventually, global warming will screw us in the rear. It will meltthe polar ice caps, ruining the currents in the ocean and salt to fresh water ratio, causing all kinds of storms. We will end up in another ice age. However, it won't happen during our lifetimes. But still, we should do something about it. Use less natural resources (as in, destroy all SUVs and Hummers), and become more ecologically aware. Perhaps we can save our Earth from being destroyed by us. Or perhaps human's natural greed and lack of caring will ruin us.

 

5 years is not enough time to set any kind of trends. A lifetime is likely too short of a time frame, as there are geological records of changes to the environment that are more severe than what we see today long before man was able to impact the environment in any way.

There are places on earth that have been setting record low temperatures, having severe winters, and cool summer. Does that mean that these people have a valid claim that we are experiencing global cooling? I saw a picture recently of a stone bridge that was built around 2000 years ago in the Middle East that was only discovered because the river that it crossed had dropped to "record low levels". The river has been underwater for decades, and no one new it was there, but apparently at some time a couple thousand years ago the "record low" level of the river must have been normal. Individually, this type of evidence just doesn’t support any grand theories environmental changes.

No doubt that man is having an impact upon the environment, but to use recent experiences as proof of the severity of the impact is irrational.

Saber, we couldn't destroy the earth if we tried. This planet started out as a ball of molten rock and poisonous gases, and it found its way into the balance we see today. Even if we set off every explosive device in existence, burned every forest, and set every oil well on fire, in time (speaking 100 of thousands of years) the balance would come back, and life would again thrive on the planet. Man just doesn't have the technology to destroy all life or upset the balance such that the earth wouldn't recover. The only thing we could destroy is a large number of species, including our own.

 

dmc: The point is that these disasters are getting worse and worse, and no place is safe. From increasingly sever hurricanes in the Southern US, to increasingly more devastating Earthquakes around the world, these disasters grow steadily worse. Deadly epidemics are striking the "civilized world." Working from the premise that there will be a point where the world will end, the further we progress, the closer we get to that point...

 

I think the question should be more like: How long will humankind last

I guess I'm pretty delusional

 

Now! ... uhhhhhhh ... now!
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
NOW!!! ... (damn )

 

The Earth will be around for a long time but the world as we know it may (and probably will) drastically change.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1749389.stm

Looks like there may be no finite limit as astronomer (at least some of them) believe it it may survive the suns death in around about 7.5 Billion years. The new figures from a British team predict it will be too hot for life in about 5.7 billion years time.

Alternative figures from Pensylvania predict the boiling of the oceans in about 1 billion years time.

Either way, I'm glad to say that I won't be around to see it.