ANSWERS: 12
  • Definitely. In another 5 billion years, the sun will expand to fill the earth's orbit. But I wouldn't worry about it just yet. That's a long way off. No species has yet managed to live that long.
  • Yes, in a few billion years, the sun will collapse in on itself, and the Earth will freeze. In theory, we could use some kind of complicated heating system to survive at that point, but we'll probably be extinct by then anyway.
  • eventually
  • LarryH54 mentioned the best know threat to habitability for Earth. However, there are others. First of all tidal interactions between the Earth and Moon are slowing Earth's rate of rotation. Eventually, these will cause Earth's rate of rotation to slow to the point at which one day will be four weeks long. This will result in extreme temperature changes from the night side to the day side. These extreme temperatures will also generated extreme winds. Another thing that will affect the habitability of the Earth will be the end of plate tectonics. Plate tectonics is the process by which Earth's interior cools. Volcanism is a major part of this process and volcanoes emit gases. In connection with this is also the circulation of metallic iron and nickel in the outer core. This generates Earth's magnetic field. The magnetic field provides a shield against the solar wind. There are those that say that without these gases from volcanoes and the magnetic field, the solar wind would erode away our atmosphere. So, when the Earth cools to the point at which these two processes cease, then you can say bye, bye to the air. I can't remember the exact predicted timing for these events or the order in which they will occur, but both will render our planet uninhabitable before the Sun becomes a red giant.
  • If all goes as planned the Sun will fry us in about five million years yo...
  • Yes, probably when the Sun begins to die and becomes a red giant star 5 billion years from now or something.
  • Yes, eventually. I just hope it happens 'naturally' and not because of something stupid we humans do to cause it to happen sooner.
  • Eventually, but not that anyone that know or heard about us will see happaning.
  • No, because by the time it could be uninhabitable...we will have solutions to keep it habitable.
  • I think it more likely and might happen sooner is that we will die out...like the dinosaurs. War, disease, famine, etc. The earth is resilient, we are not; we live in and can tolerate very narrow range of conditions and temperatures, geologically speaking. The Earth is much more durable.
  • Depends... are we evolving? :|
  • Probably, several thousands of years from now.

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