Off The Record
Experts Reveal Chilling Timeline For End Of Human Race – It’s Closer Than You Think
According to a dire new study, humans would become extinct on Earth in 250 million years if we stopped burning fossil fuels now.
According to specialists at the University of Bristol, computer simulations indicate that a mass extinction will wipe out all mammals on our planet.
According to them, any life forms that are still on Earth at this point would have to adapt to temperatures ranging from 40°C to 70°C (104°F to 158°F).
The date of our extinction will probably come much sooner because their calculations do not take into consideration greenhouse gases released by burning fossil fuels and other human-caused causes.
It would be the first mass extinction since the extinction of the dinosaurs, which occurred about 66 million years ago when a huge space rock struck Earth catastrophically.
Dr. Alexander Farnsworth, a senior research associate at the School of Geographical Sciences at the University of Bristol, conducted the new study.
“The outlook in the distant future appears very bleak,” Dr Farnsworth said.
“Carbon dioxide levels could be double current levels.”
“Humans – along with many other species – would expire due to their inability to shed this heat through sweat, cooling their bodies.”
The researchers predict that in 250 million years, all of Earth’s continents will have migrated together to create Pangea Ultima, a supercontinent.
What’s left of the once-powerful Atlantic Ocean would be a doughnut-shaped landmass with an inland sea in the center.
In contrast, the nearby Pacific Ocean would occupy the majority of the Earth’s surface.
One potential model of what Earth’s supercontinent might resemble if plate tectonics converges is Pangea Ultima.
Scientists are certain that Earth’s continents will gradually combine to form a single, scorching, arid, and mostly inhospitable mass, regardless of the precise alignment.
The globe would warm even faster as a result of more frequent volcanic eruptions brought on by the tectonic processes that drew the continents together. These eruptions would emit massive amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere.
The natural brightening of the sun, which is gradually making the planets hotter, is another, less well-known aspect of global warming.
“The newly emerged supercontinent would effectively create a triple whammy, comprising the continentality effect, hotter sun and more CO₂ in the atmosphere, of increasing heat for much of the planet,” said Dr Farnsworth.
“The result is a mostly hostile environment devoid of food and water sources for mammals.”
“Widespread temperatures of between 40 to 50 degrees Celsius, and even greater daily extremes, compounded by high levels of humidity would ultimately seal our fate.”
The researchers simulated Pangea Ultima’s temperature, wind, precipitation, and humidity patterns using computerized climate models.
The team mapped out CO2 inputs and outputs using models of ocean chemistry, tectonic plate movement, and other factors to forecast the future amount of CO2.
The contribution of CO2 emissions from burning fossil fuels, which are frequently considered as the main cause of climate change today, was not taken into account, the researchers emphasize.
According to their estimates, CO2 levels might increase from about 400 parts per million (ppm) at the present time to over 600 ppm over millions of years.
“Of course, this assumes that humans will stop burning fossil fuels, otherwise we will see those numbers much, much sooner,” said co-author Professor Benjamin Mills at the University of Leeds.
According to research, just 8% to 16% of land will be suitable for animal habitation, however it is likely that all mammal species will become extinct.
“‘Some specialised ones could survive potentially, however it would still be a mass extinction of mammals either way,” Dr Farnsworth told MailOnline.
Even worse, since the supercontinent would mostly be in the hot, humid tropics, a large portion of the world may experience temperatures that are higher than those that many mammal species are accustomed to.
“We can’t predict how long humans will exist for, however, should we assume that we do last that long such a future world would be inhospitable for us,” Dr Farnsworth added.
The academic said we might be able to survive if we built “environmentally controlled shelters with air conditioning.”
“But we would likely have to build other facilities to house food production as well,” he said.
Although it is now solely the stuff of science fiction, the development of civilizations on other worlds in other solar systems is another hope for humanity.
“[Survival] will all depend on whether we can escape this planet, and if not, do we have the capacity to use geoengineering solutions to manage the climate,” Dr Farnsworth said.
Today, the work was released in Nature Geoscience.
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