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Related: About this forumThese Are the Planets We Could Move to Once We’re Done Completely Destroying Earth
If you attend any climate change protest these days, you're bound to see a sign that reads, "There is no planet B." Even UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon has adopted the slogan. "This is our planet Earth. This is a very small planet, if we consider the vastness of the universe," he told an audience at Climate Week in New York City last year. "There is no plan B, because we do not have a planet B."
It's self-evident that the solution to man-made climate change is not packing ourselves into a space ship and heading off to colonize far-away galaxies. Curbing carbon pollution and developing low-carbon energy sources are the generally agreed-upon solutions to help slow global warming.
But, in the distant future, if we really had to leave our broken home for better climes—and we possessed the technology to catapult ourselves to solar systems that are light-years away—where could we go?
More: http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2015/06/video-exoplanets-climate-change
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Buzz Clik
(38,437 posts)EL34x4
(2,003 posts)600 million years from now: The Sun's increasing luminosity begins to disrupt the carbonate–silicate cycle; higher luminosity increases weathering of surface rocks, which traps carbon dioxide in the ground as carbonate. As water evaporates from the Earth's surface, rocks harden, causing plate tectonics to slow and eventually stop. Without volcanoes to recycle carbon into the Earth's atmosphere, carbon dioxide levels begin to fall.[50] By this time, carbon dioxide levels will fall to the point at which C3 photosynthesis is no longer possible. All plants that utilize C3 photosynthesis (~99 percent of present-day species) will die.
800 million years from now: Carbon dioxide levels fall to the point at which C4 photosynthesis is no longer possible. Free oxygen and ozone disappear from the atmosphere. Multicellular life dies out.
We will have probably long since been wiped out by an asteroid, super volcano or gamma ray burst before this happens though.
Response to EL34x4 (Reply #3)
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Dont call me Shirley
(10,998 posts)packman
(16,296 posts)SheilaT
(23,156 posts)any planets that are quite like earth. Although, as my astrophysicist son has told me, at this point we don't have the technology to find planets as small as earth. He says eventually we will.
Of course, if you really want to worry about the distant future, please be advised that in about 4 or 5 billion years our galaxy, Milky Way, is going to collide with the nearest galaxy, Andromeda.
sammythecat
(3,568 posts)in the galaxy can be compared to a baseball in each of the 50 states. The most likely scenario for when the galaxies pass through one another is that nothing will happen other than a wildly different looking night sky. It seems incredible but this is according to all the articles I've read on the subject.
A fact is a fact and doesn't change no matter what, nevertheless I am continually amazed at just how incredibly empty the universe is. We don't even have words to describe the distances. If it's a really long way to the other side of the world what words do we use for a trip to one of Jupiters moons that are well over 40,000 times farther? And then it's that indescribable distance times more than 50,000 to get to the nearest star which, by the way, has no habitable planets.
SheilaT
(23,156 posts)I asked my astrophysicist son, when that collision between galaxies occur, how many stars will actually collide? His answer: best guess is no more than ten. Wow.
And these very vast distances mean it's highly unlikely we will ever be able to visit any other planetary system. Sigh. Such a shame. I'm an inveterate reader of science fiction, so I happily wish I could believe in faster than light travel, but it's probably not going to happen.
We really should be taking better care of our only planet.
arcane1
(38,613 posts)Never a dull eon around here 
Never a dull eon around here indeed. 
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)I say, "How about doing it HERE first?"
MisterP
(23,730 posts)if we could? talk about putting the cart before the horse
yuiyoshida
(41,874 posts)inhabited by beings like ourselves. They might consider us coming there a threat, on the other hand, what if similar beings came to earth saying their planet was long ago messed up, would we be willing to share this planet with someone else? I don't think so.
AngryDem001
(684 posts)they have the tech to kick our ass six ways from Sunday.
yuiyoshida
(41,874 posts)If you are talking about intelligent beings, they may think differently. Their experiences may have been different, than ours influencing their behavior. On the other hand, we might disgust them enough to blow our shit out of the water!
arcane1
(38,613 posts)
jtuck004
(15,882 posts)What makes you think they want people who would destroy their ability to live on their own planet, without the
technology to escape what they are doing to themselves? 
Maybe the reason we haven't found them yet is that they are far, far smarter that we have given them credit for.
