Could we survive without the moon?

Question

I was wondering why we have a moon and thought maybe it is there because we need it......you know with the tide going in and out because of the moon's gravity.....but COULD we survive if it wasn't there??

Answer 1

Apparently, the moon's gravity, as well as causing the tides, helps stabilise the Earth's rotation around its axis. Without this stabilizing force, the Earth would wobble, or even flip over!

The consequences of this would be highly unstable seasons with unpredictable extremes of hot or cold, far worse than anything we are experincing now with global warming.

Some have said that if the moon never existed, life may not have been able to evolve on this planet at all.

Answer 2

I can recommend a great book that talks in detail about how life would be different without a moon. The title is Rare Earth, and I'll put an amazon link below. You might be able to find the book in a school library.

There's also something called "The rare earth hypothesis" which, like the book, talks about all the things that happened just so to make the Earth exactly what it is. To sum up the major points, without a moon:

1. The Earth's precession (wobble, like a top) would be much greater. This would, over millions of years, take Earth from a situation of having no seasons at all, to the situation of having very severe differences in seasons, and back again, over and over again for the entire history of the planet. Lots of species would go extinct all the time.

2. The tides caused by our moon don't just affect the water, they push and pull the land as well. They helps to keep plate tectonics going and has two beneficial effects:
a. without plate tectonics to create mountains, the land would have all eroded away into the sea and we'd be a water planet.
b. it keeps the interior hot, which keeps volcanism going, which keeps our atmosphere full. All planets, including Earth, lose many tones of atmosphere to space (yes, even though we have the magnetic field to slow the process down). Volcanoes replenish the gas that is lost to space.

And there are lots of other things. I really encourage you to read the book. You'll love it. In summary my answer is that yes, we definitely needed a moon for life to evolve the way it has. Now that we are here though, we could survive without it because all of these effects are very slow, taking thousands or millions of years.

Answer 3

Yes, of course we could. The Moon does have some important effects on The Earth like tides, eclipses and animal behaviour. Even Human behaviour such as Lunacy. (Interesting fact for you: Crime rates are higher during the full Moon) The Moon has even played a part in Evolution.
But it wouldn't be the end of The World if it wasn't there, we could survive quite easily.

Answer 4

The tide would be the least of our problems if we decided to sell the Moon to a passing alien. If we did that, the Earth's magnetic field would break down because it is maintained by lunar tides. That would lead to the end of the Van Allen Belts, which protect us from radiation from the Sun, so Earth's surface would become dangerously radioactive, which would kill off most or all of the plankton in the oceans and most of the life on land This would lead to the loss of oxygen from the atmosphere through decomposition and the increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. This would cause global warming on an unprecedented scale, to the extent that the oceans would boil and all life on Earth would be destroyed. This planet would end up like Venus.

Answer 5

Because of the sun, there would still be tides, just not as high. Certain species would likely be effected and perhaps there would be an extinction or two. The moon does moderate the earths inclination a bit, I forget the details, so there would be eventual climatic circumstances, but there probably wouldn't be any extreme immediate effects. There would be a lot less bad poetry and werewolf attacks would become a thing of the past.

Answer 6

We don't have a moon because we NEED it, it just happens to be there. Many planets have several moons. We got ripped off and got one. Frankly, I'd not miss it overmuch, except as a night light, but then I'm not a Werewolf either.
The moon's gravitational net has caused the period of rotation on the Earth to lengthen gradually so that the day now is longer than say in the Jurassic times. The moon also causes the tides, and without the moon, the oceans would be considerably less interesting. And the moon provides extra illumination at night thanks to its high albedo, or reflecting properties, and that really helps much when you have a job as a cat burglar! It would make my job a lot harder!
But could we live without it, most probably. But if the moon were to suddenly just vanish, the consequences would be terrible indeed as it would disrupt the Earth immensely and affect it's orbit around the Sun.

Answer 7

No Ma'am. Although technology has made a lot of advances, we still need a stable environment to exist. A lot of the technology that has been developed for better weather survival is based on the predictability of the weather patterns, and the advancement of satelite technology. Because the moon influences the gravitational pull, and therefore the Earth's rotational stability, this technology would become ineffective against the unpredicatble changes in atmosphere. Not to mention that the weather would become altered. We might even fall off axis.

Answer 8

No way, the moon is fundamental to our existance on earth. The moon is what controls the climate on earth. It prevents the earth from wobbling which would screw up our global climate.
It is remarkabley big, in comparision to other moons relatave to their planets, this causes it to have a greater gravitational pull and thus affect earth in a great way. The moon is what causes the tides and also has an affect on the ocean currents (ocean currents mainly affected by land distribution).
Without the ocean currents bringing warm water to the cooler areas and cooler waters to the warmer areas the poles would be extremely cold and the equator extremely hot.

Answer 9

Current scientific consensus is that the moon formed when a large meteorite hit the earth, billions of years ago, and threw a large amount of debris into space. The debris coalesced and earth's gravity keeps it close.

Interestingly enough, the moon is moving away from the earth very slowly, and will at some point break orbit.

By looking at the moon you can see many craters. It is likely that the moon has protected the earth from meteor impacts in the past, but the probability of it taking the impact for us is quite low.

All-in-all, I think it's safe to say we would adapt and survive without the moon. However, the impacts are hard to predict.

It is more likely humans will pollute the human race to extinction before we lose the moon.

Answer 10

If the stability of the Earth's biosphere over billions of years is caused by the presence of the moon, and if such stability is needed for the evolution of advanced life, and if the moon was created by the highly improbable act of a meteorite striking the earth at just the right angle and just the right velocity, then it gives you some idea of how exceedingly rare advanced life forms must be in the universe.