ecologically how much longer can our earth go on for ?

Question

also is there a approx time when humans wont be able to live on earth due to heat / lack of resources etc

these questions are similar but not the same as the earth may become uninhabitable before it ceases to excist.

Answer 1

Heat will not become a problem until the Sun gets hotter, in some hundreds of millions of years. Global warming is not expected to make the temperature rise more than a couple of degrees. And that prediction is not some oil company white wash, even Al Gore is saying that.

We have lack of resources right now, and have always had such a lack for all recorded history. Lack of resources is not going to be a problem, unless the population grows a LOT more. If the population just grows a little or stays the same, there are plenty of resources to support us indefinitely. Oh, we may run out of oil, but there is ample air, water, and farm land. Either new energy technology will allow us to continue driving cars or we will have to live like the Amish in 100 years; but we will all live just fine.

Answer 2

you know I wonder that everyday

I think about between 10-20 years till the ice caps melt

Any random time with little notice for an astoroid to destroy the planet

and the nuclear winter is pending....

but then I read this so I dont know:
Scientists have calculated the year when the human race will cease to exist. It will be October 31, otherwise known as Halloween. But there is no need to worry yet as the year is 2,252,006 - more than two-and-a-quarter million years from now.
The date was announced by a team of European geologists and palaeontologists after millions of fossils from central Spain were analysed.
It confirms suspicions that mammal species have an average lifespan of 2.5 million years and modern man has already been around for 250,000 years.
The reason for the life cycle is thought to be a blip in the Earth's orbit which means it does not get as close to the sun as usual, triggering rapid cooling.
A report in Nature Journal says the subsequent ice age would destroy all human life

Answer 3

An ecology that favours humans is only one of a myriad of possible ecologies. The Earth was here long before we named it, and will most likely still exist in a few billion years time, when it will either be engulfed by the sun or will leave the solar system to become a roaming ice ball.

I doubt we will still inhabit the Earth at that time.

BTW, your two questions are exactly the same, since its only humans who consciously care about their position within an ecology.

Answer 4

I think it will take at least tens of millions, of years ( I think the earth is something like seven billion yrs old), baring some major asteroid or comet strike. Advancing human technology will evolve, as will preservation efforts, to make sure that long term ecological problems will eventually be curtailed. Unfortunately, it seems like no one does anything until it's almost too late. Meaning, the Earth may survive, but our quality of life may be lessened, because of the human races perpetual need to procrastinate.
I've also heard that because the Moon is steadily moving away from the Earth that when it eventually stops orbiting the Earth it will cause it to wobble and lose its access and begin to tumble. And that this will destroy the Earth long before we do ( at least ecologically).

Answer 5

I think that the earth will not be able to support human life in about 500,000 years time. By then we'll have found a way to colonise another planet probably Mars. Ironically we can make Mars habitable by starting a greenhouse effect there. We just need to introduce the right gases and start the ball rolling. It's called terraforming....so the thing that may make human life unsustainable on Earth could make it feasible on another planet.

Answer 6

5 years

Answer 7

this is a very, very interesting question. I certainly don't know the answer and some environmental scientist would have to do the calculations to give it to you but what ever the answer is it will focus us on the real issue of trying to survive on this planet at our present rate of consumption rather than focusing on the fact that the sun has 4 - 5 billion years life left so we'll be alright for that long. At our present consumption rate I very much doubt we will be.

Answer 8

The Earth will go on for billions of years until the Sun expands and engulfs it.

The main problem for us humans is that we have wrecked our environment and in about 250 years we will be extinct. Mind you by then we may have colonised Mars.

The Earth is going to be fine, our decendants won't be!

Answer 9

earth will go on for a few billion years, but the effect of humans on earth is equivalent to mass extinction, it started thousands of years ago and is reaching a critical rate / phase. it is possible that in less than 50 years the change of earth climate will cause almost total destruction of many ecosystems.

Answer 10

There is no limit to how many more eons the earth can continue - I guess the more important question is how much longer will the earth go on in it's current state