doomsday, will it ever come or?

General Forums Off-topic Chat
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Myself and a friend of mine were discussing several of the various different ways the earth could potentially be … greatly damaged… and how human, or any other type of life might survive.

Even if the sun were to just up and vanish, life on this planet could continue for quite a long time. That would put a definite time-table on ‘total extinction’ but life could survive in some form here so long as there is liquid water.

If Apophis were to hit, theoretically, human life could survive for quite a long while in certain areas. We are extremely adaptable as a species, and i have no doubt there would be some long-term method to harvest heat and energy from any number of sources here on earth.

But yeah, Global Warming will not kill off the human species. That’s not to say that it won’t do some damage, but this planet undergoes a lot of change. It would be nothing new for the planet to be extremely warm. It was warming already, tho it has in the last several decades or so increased in the rate. Humans? The Sun? That’s the debate, really. I can see why people want to conserve the sepcies effected - Polar Bears, Seals, Sealions, etc. But the warming will also allow more trees to grow in a more northern area, especially conifers - which are less likely to be eaten due to their poor nutritional value. Those trees are responsible for more than half the oxygen production on the planet, and over half of the carbon removal. The planet - life here - is able to regulate itself pretty well. For the short-term yes, all the bad things they predict to happen may happen. But the planet can, does and will fix itself long before we will ever be able to do anything about it. We simply aren’t as efficient.

And a fun video of how smart and cool animals can be :smiley:

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Those trees are responsible for more than half the oxygen production on the planet, and over half of the carbon removal.

Nasa says otherwise. Maybe we should watch out about trashing the oceans as well.

From the article:

At least 1/2 of the oxygen we breathe comes from the photosynthesis of marine plants. Currently, 48% of the carbon emitted to the atmosphere by fossil fuel burning is sequestered into the ocean. But the future fate of this important carbon sink is quite uncertain because of potential climate change impacts on ocean circulation, biogeochemical cycling, and ecosystem dynamics.

Estimates have gone higher than 50%, up to 90%. Just food for thought.

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Top Ten Science based predictions that didn’t come true:

10. “The earth’s crust does not move”- 19th through early 20th century accepted geological science. See Plate Tectonics

9. “The bomb will never go off. I speak as an expert in explosives.” — Admiral William Leahy, U.S. Atomic Bomb Project

8. “That virus is a pussycat.” — Dr. Peter Duesberg, molecular-biology professor at U.C. Berkeley, on HIV, 1988

7. “I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.” — Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943

6. “Radio has no future. Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible. X-rays will prove to be a hoax.” — William Thomson, Lord Kelvin, British scientist, 1899.

5. “There is not the slightest indication that nuclear energy will ever be obtainable. It would mean that the atom would have to be shattered at will.” — Albert Einstein, 1932

4. “Space travel is bunk.” — Sir Harold Spencer Jones, Astronomer Royal of the UK, 1957 (two weeks later Sputnik orbited the Earth).

3. “If I had thought about it, I wouldn’t have done the experiment. The literature was full of examples that said you can’t do this.” — Spencer Silver on the work that led to the unique adhesives for 3-M “Post-It” Notepads.

2. “Stomach ulcers are caused by stress” — accepted medical diagnosis, until Dr. Marshall proved that H. pyloricaused gastric inflammation by deliberately infecting himself with the bacterium.

1. “Telltale signs are everywhere —from the unexpected persistence and thickness of pack ice in the waters around Iceland to the southward migration of a warmth-loving creature like the armadillo from the Midwest. Since the 1940s the mean global temperature has dropped about 2.7° F.” — Climatologist George J. Kukla of Columbia University in Time Magazine’s June 24th, 1975 article Another Ice Age?

So the next time you hear about worldwide crop failure, rising sea levels, species extinction, or “climate grief” you might want to remember that just being an expert, or even having a consensus of experts, doesn’t necessarily mean that a claim is true.

Fastest sperm don’t always mean smartest!

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Hard to know what to believe, our media is so tainted , I am going to stay neutral on the Global warming thing for a couple of years. I have always been a non wasteful person.
Not much I have to change to be an extremist like my wife, if this warming thing is true.

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My votes on some kindof pandemic. Or radiation from venus turning dead bodies into zombies :stuck_out_tongue:

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I’ve also heard andromeda is on a collision couse with our galaxy. Fun times ahead wha??

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Some science predictions come true. Some do not. A list of predictions which did not come true does not disprove anything.

Dundaglan: Yeah, that’s true, but in space everything happens relatively slow, so it’ll be millions of years before anything really happens, and even then I doubt anyone living in either galaxy will really notice a difference. It’s simply too slow a process to affect living things (at least, living things with a lifespan like that of a human).

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what if this one turns true ??

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I have a coupla theories on it myself. First off “Humans” aren’t to blame. It’s just a coupla numbskulls that get to power, and have the genius idea of drinking nuclear waste to make radioactive poop slaves or something else stupid (PM me if you wanna turn this into a blendergame)

I doubt life will ever come to an end. Maybe humans will, but i think there will be the few who might evolve and turn into something wicked tight.

Or maybe it’ll start with an earthquake, birds and snakes and airplanes, but Lenny Bruce is not afraid. Eye of the Hurricane listen to yourself churn, Turn it up a notch, crank it up a notch, uh-oh overflow, klahfkd owf jakldjf aklfdalsdf THIS IS THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT!!

Tee hee hee, i forgot lyrics :smiley:

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why do we care ?? we will not be living.

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Surrounded by a Somebody Else’s Problem Field are we? Sometimes one needs to deal with problems in the present–pollution will only increase rather than decrease in the future. Right now it is only a very difficult problem to solve. In the future it could be impossible. If every generation hot-potatoes its problems to the next, they’ll never get solved.

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let them waist thier own time … they are gonna die not us

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Damn. Ah well there’s always blender to see what it may look like!!

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Can I get my bright green lobster suit out now?

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Amazing the many facets Blender is capable of.

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The only problem with this sort of argument is all of the MANY MANY times that science went against the grain and was right. Humans used to think they could do whatever the hell they wanted and it wouldn’t affect the climate. Looks like they may have been wrong… science is leaning that way…

See?

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so do some of you really think that carbon dioxide ommissions are not effecting the climate?

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That is why it is science. Science is not absolute and if a better explanation is found it will be adopted…

OT: Nothing lasts forever, this planet will go bust sooner or later, let’s hope we will have evolved far enough to be able to reach out to new lands and escape. So yes it will happen but it will be a physical happening not some seven blokes riding horses…

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what if abraham lincoln had said that about slavery? :slight_smile:

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This is a Highly Valid Point.