Scientists reveal the exact date when Earth will face a 'mass extinction'

 

Scientists signal the onset of the sixth mass extinction on our planet; these will be its consequences.

Groundbreaking research at the University of Bristol has unveiled a dire timeline for Earth's habitability. While the planet has nurtured life for billions of years, scientists have pinpointed a termination point for the life of mammals, and thus humans, at approximately 250 million years.

This forecast is the outcome of extensive computer modeling that examined a number of factors that affect Earth's long-term environmental conditions, including the motion of tectonic plates, variations in solar radiation, and atmospheric composition.

The triple threat to Earth's habitability

The research identifies three primary factors that, together, will make the planet an uninhabitable environment.

Formation of a new supercontinent: The birth of an enormous chunk of land will fundamentally reshape the planet's geography, and impact world climate patterns extensively.

More solar radiation: The Sun is projected to emit around 2.5% more than at present.

Higher levels of carbon dioxide: Atmospheric concentrations of CO₂ will be twice current levels.

As per Dr Alexander Farnsworth, a research leader at the Cabot Institute for the Environment at the University of Bristol, all these variables together will see widespread temperatures rise to between 40°C and 70°C, rendering a large part of the world off-limits for mammals.

The geography of future Earth

The study also foresees an interesting reshaping of the planet's surface in the next 250 million years. The Earth's shape will change to a doughnut shape, with an inland sea at the center and the Pacific Ocean covering most of the surface.

This geographical re-arrangement shall be the result of the unabating drift of tectonic plates, which have a natural tendency to drift into supercontinents every 400 to 600 million years. This fresh continental arrangement shall bring about climatic conditions hugely different from existing ones, profoundly impacting the global habitability.

The role of human interference and its role in the contemporary climate

The researchers bring out the linkage between projected scenarios and our climate predicament in the present. Dr Eunice Lo, a research officer in Climate Change and Health at the University of Bristol, underlines the current policy pertinence of the results for action on climate. The work postulates that human activities, particularly fossil fuel use and the production of greenhouse gases, might expedite the timetable for inhabitable conditions.

While the Earth has not witnessed a mass extinction event since the dinosaurs' extinction 66 million years ago, human activity is setting up conditions that will lead to the next major extinction event. Scientists caution that the interaction between natural planetary evolution and human-caused global warming is setting up a dynamic in the future habitability of the Earth.

Last reflection

The research points out that though the far future of Earth might seem grim, the climate implications are already being experienced in the present. The intense heat and violent weather conditions we are witnessing now are a reminder that net-zero greenhouse gas emissions are important not just for the current times, but also for the future of life on Earth.