• Question: estimates have been that the decline of life could happen in less than 100 years, is there any truth in that?

    Asked by to Nat, Nate, Roberto, Sam on 25 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Natasha Stephen

      Natasha Stephen answered on 25 Jun 2014:

      I don’t believe so! We are still constantly evolving as a species ourselves as are many others alive on Earth today! There is no evidence to suggest that we are going to start dying out so soon, not when everything we need to survive is still plentiful. Even things that we don’t truly “need” to survive such as fossil fuels will still be around in 100 years!

    • Photo: Roberto Trotta

      Roberto Trotta answered on 25 Jun 2014:

      In terms of the decline in biodiversity — that is, the number of species of animals and plants on Earth — we know that human activities are really having a terrible impact right now.

      Pollution, destruction of habitat and the expansion of human population all mean the destruction of a large amount of natural resources, which in turn means that the diversity of life on our planet is reduced. This puts many species at very high risk of extinction — certainly within the next 100 years.

      If we think in terms of human life, it is not clear how the population of earth will evolve in the next 100 years. There is now 7 billion humans on the planet, and there are not enough resources for everybody — not if we continue to waste them and concentrate them for the few (us in the rich, Western world) rather than help the many billions who have too little. So it’s unclear that we can continue like that – resources are limited, and it might be that a catastrophe like a very infectious disease might kill large numbers of the earth population in the next 100 years.

      So sadly there are lots of challenges for us ahead! Hopefully science can be used for the good of everybody, and we can come up with solutions to avoid the worst!

    • Photo: Sam Connolly

      Sam Connolly answered on 26 Jun 2014:

      I think it’s very unlikely. There has been life on Earth for billions of years, which has survived some pretty catastrophic events like huge asteroid collisions, gigantic volcanic eruptions which blocked out the Sun for half the world and many ice ages. So I can’t imagine it’ll suddenly give up in the next hundred years!

      As Roberto says, the effects that humans could have could be pretty devastating. The only reason that humanity would die out any time soon would be if we destroy ourselves, which I like to think won’t happen, but who knows! Even if there were to happen, I don’t think we’d be successful in wiping out all life on the planet! Even if we had a good go at it, it would eventually recover again.

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