This is…the best-case scenario for Earth’s future

the Land It has been around for about 4.5 billion years and has changed a lot in that time. What started out as a ball of molten magma eventually cooled and a few small tectonic plates formed – after a few billion years, in fact, the planet was covered in various supercontinent formations and teeming with life. However, the Earth is still young from a cosmic point of view. We’re only a third of the way through its potential lifespan and there’s still a lot of change.

Unfortunately, according to Related IFL Science publicationsIt seems unlikely that human civilization will survive these changes. according to A related study was published last year in the journal Nature GeoscienceIn the future, our world will once again be dominated by a single giant continent virtually uninhabitable by any mammals.

“The outlook for the distant future looks very bleak,” stressed Alexander Farnsworth, a senior research fellow at the Cabot Institute for the Environment at the University of Bristol and lead author of the study. In his relevant statement. He added: “Carbon dioxide levels could be two times higher than current levels. The sun is also expected to emit approximately 2.5% additional radiation, and the supercontinent is mostly located in warm, humid tropical regions, and a large part of the planet may experience temperatures ranging between… 40 and 70 degrees Celsius.

What is the best possible scenario for Earth?

The new supercontinent — also known as Pangea Ultimate in reference to the ancient supercontinent Pangea — would be a “triple whammy” for Earth, Alexander Farnsworth said: Not only would the world face about 50% more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than it does. At current levels, not only would the Sun be hotter than it is today — this happens to all stars as they age due to the evolution of the push and pull between gravity and fusion that occurs in the core — but the size of the supercontinent itself would make it almost completely uninhabitable. This is due to the phenomenon of continentalization, i.e. coastal areas are cooler and wetter than inland areas.

However, this is the best possible scenario. “We think carbon dioxide could rise from about 400 parts per million today to more than 600 parts per million over millions of years in the future,” explained Benjamin Mills, professor of Earth system evolution at the University of Leeds, who led the study’s calculations. He added: “Of course, this assumes that people stop burning fossil fuels, otherwise we would see these numbers much sooner.”

So while the study paints an ominous picture for Earth millions of years from now, the authors caution us not to lose sight of the problems looming on the horizon. Eunice Lu, a researcher in climate change and health at the University of Bristol and co-author of the study, warned: “It is important that we do not run away from the current climate crisis, which is a result of human emissions of greenhouse gases.” Stady.