Is planet Earth, for want of a better word, screwed, no matter what anybody does?

Question

Now, although this Global Warming thingy is complicated & it seems an army of scientists/politicians/hippies are queuing up to tell me completely different things, its pretty obvious that between animals going extinct, deforestation and floods, tsunamis, hurricanes, melting icecaps etc that are happening, there’s is probably a problem and because we're all idiots, like pools of vomit around a grinning drunk its not hard to allocate blame.

So, what I want to know is, even if we suddenly stopped being the weight on the environment we are, is it too late? are we too far gone? Extinct animals aint coming back, the forests we are all living on cant return without us all going... There’s too many of us, we need to eat, we need homes and we need fuel (and PS3s).

So, even if we could change overnight, is it too late? Is the planet screwed? Is it time to get off this rock and see if we can't find something in space to make some money from, like Lost in Space but with swearing and nudity?

Answer 1

Species go extinct every single day. The earth has survived cataclysmic disasters on a scale which we can barely imagine. Even a global nuclear holocaust wouldn't end things- it'd just make the planet a hostile environment for some of the life currently here.

Your question shouldn't be about the quantity of life on earth, but the quality of the life on earth which you value; better put, the megafauna (big visible living things) are most susceptible to human-inflenced population changes, but also, the megafauna make up the smallest part of global biomass, and are the least important part of the ecosystem.

Overall, things aren't that bad. Cheer up. You're going to live longer than any generation in the history of humanity.

Answer 2

Since the earth is spinning away from the sun at an ever increasing rate, it should finally become an ice planet in about 50 trillion years. However, mankind (and women) will not last any longer than another 300 years at the rate we are going. In the end I feel that evolution will decide to get rid of us once and for all and ask the ants to take over.

Answer 3

I wonder if the dinosaurs 250million years ago said the same thing?
The earth will go on with or without us, we are just another species that for a short time have been around. In the big scheme of things what we do or don't do will NOT make any difference to the environment of this planet. Enjoy the sun and the sea while you can.

Answer 4

There are lots of things we can do to help many species who risk extinction because of global warming to survive.
Rapid changes are taking place out of our control and alot we can not do anything about, but i think to come to the conclusion that the world is screwed is a tad extreeme.
Natural flucuations to climate and carbon concentrations have been taking place for billions of years.
All we can do is look after each other and wait and see what happens.
Nature will always fight back when the balance is shifted.
Keep smiling :-) there is always hope.

Answer 5

Over the millions of year (sorry creationists) that Earth has been here and man has been upon it the climate has changed quite considerably and we have survived so far, though with the current stock of humanity i don't hold out any hope as most are lazy, stupid and idle they will perish in hours of a real problem and the others? they'll be too busy attributing blame and scapegoating they'll be next, so it loks like hippies and greenies with a few practicle folk will be left.
yes life is like a box of chocolates and you do know what you're gonna get, it tells you on the box! on a lighter note the queues will probably be smaller for atm's in the high street.

Answer 6

Ease up on the caffeine, my friend! There's still a decade or two of wiggle room. What happens globally in the next year or two will answer your question. In the meantime, keep on your local representatives and Senators, and educate yourself beyond the babble that the general media offers. They tend to regurgitate press releases and everyone else's stories. Did deeper, take action, and hold your breathe. The light at the end of the tunnel is there, we just need to find the switch.

Answer 7

You ask - no matter what anybody does - and that is key really, because that's NEVER going to happen. Yes of course we CAN turn things around if we miraculously change tomorrow from being a race of short-sighted, greedy, self-interested Beings, but that's not going to happen. Sure of course we could implement measures to end CO2 emissions globally in just one year, we could stop deforesting tomorrow, we could start re-foresting tomorrow, we could stop and ban and change a million things tomorrow and of course it'd make a dramatic and radical positive difference to the world, but it's simply NOT going to happen. So yes, I guess that does mean we're screwed.

Answer 8

Absolutely not, the earth will do just fine. It is we who will be screwed. The environment will be just fine, it's just that will the environment be conducive to life as we know it. SInce that is the question I believe you are asking, then no, the earth cannot sustain the conditions we are currently imposing on it. Some factor or combination of factors will set a new homeostasis.

Populations increase until limited by war, famine or disease. Take your pick of any or all of the above.

Answer 9

not undesirable for the planet yet, not reliable for human emotion and recommendations depreciation. finally we would have severe issues, gasoline disaster, potential hoarding, on perfect of the subjects we've like famine, poverty, apostasy, slavery. those are all genuine subjects yet a non secular individual won't care. through fact they think of God will save the day. So how as a race are we going to handle this difficulty while there's a pair of billion people dedicated to historic scriptures? It annoys me through fact in this cutting-side era we could continuously be doing what we are in a position to for the bobbing up countries, for the persons and the planet. answer is we in simple terms can not. it is unhappy people in simple terms permit it take place too. not very Christian.

Answer 10

"Like pools of vomit around a grinning drunk" WOW..where did you get that from. That facts are Global warming is caused by our very own sun eg- solar eruptions solar winds etc. as for animal extinction that is down to mother nature but i agree there is to many people on this planet but that was what war is supposed to take care of..You may not like it but it is a fact