[Thomas]

Thomas asked the Naked Scientists:
   
How will it be until the earth becomes uninhabitable, and what will be that best course of action to take?

What do you think?

[Don_1]

Next week........ I'm off!

[Nizzle]

The best course of action for earth's survival is kill all humans! (except maybe the tribes deep in the Amazon forest, Eskimo's and other tribes with respect for earth).
And let evolution try again to produce an "intelligent" species, that hopefully will have more sense

[LeeE]

The Earth will certainly become uninhabitable in about 5 billion years time, and the only option then will be to leave and find somewhere else to live.

[RD]

The Earth will certainly become uninhabitable in about 5 billion years time

Bone dry and uninhabitable by any plant or animal in 1 billion years, (charred in 5 billion).

[LeeE]

The Earth will certainly become uninhabitable in about 5 billion years time

Bone dry and uninhabitable by any plant or animal in 1 billion years, (charred in 5 billion).

Yup, thereabouts, if not sooner (depending on when the Earth's core cools and solidifies, and we lose our magnetosphere) you'd have to rely upon imports if you wanted to carry on living here.

[litespeed]

The Planet and human kind are resilient. For intance, our ancestors survied the last ice age. They also surmived the Midieval Warming (warmer then now). In addition, much of human kind is beginning to reject the Cult Of Global Warming.  Increasingly, the GW crowd look more and more like midieval shamans. The entire ediface will collapse within ten years.

If you are a scence major, remove youself with all due diligence to some other more reputable endeavor.  These guys are very much the new Flat Earthers.

[Bored chemist]

Litespeed,
I take it that you have no idea what will happen to the Earth when the Sun goes red giant.
Nobody will care what the CO2 levels are.

[Don_1]

Strewth, it's hot today!

I do hope it isn't going to get any hotter, I've run ou of suntan lotion and I don't want to burn, there's nothing worse than overdoing the tan and ending up looking like David Dickenson or Judith Cha

[JimBob]

The Planet and human kind are resilient. For intance, our ancestors survied the last ice age. They also surmived the Midieval Warming (warmer then now). In addition, much of human kind is beginning to reject the Cult Of Global Warming.  Increasingly, the GW crowd look more and more like midieval shamans. The entire ediface will collapse within ten years.

If you are a scence major, remove youself with all due diligence to some other more reputable endeavor.  These guys are very much the new Flat Earthers.

Well, that seems to be totally unbiased and based soundly on science. 

Global warming is a fact. It is occurring. The debate is whether or not man has caused it, not that it may or may not be occurring.

If you want to be a positive contributor, inform yourself.

[litespeed]

Bored chemist - You wrote:

"I take it that you have no idea what will happen to the Earth when the Sun goes red giant." Of COURSE I know about that, and am curious as to why you bring it up to me when I did not even address the issue.

However, I was serious about college majors moving away quietly and slowly from the GW crew if they want a serious career in the climate industry. The house of cards has already begun to fall.....

[litespeed]

JimBob - You wrote: "Global warming is a fact. It is occurring..."

Wrong again, Grasshopper! The earth has been cooling for about one decade already. Further, sunspot cycle 24 is already going on three years late.

You also wrote: "If you want to be a positive contributor, inform yourself." OK However, before I put out the extra effort, I want you to tell me if you know whether or not anytime in the last 2,000 years the climate has been warmer then it now is......

[Karsten]

Bored chemist - You wrote:

"I take it that you have no idea what will happen to the Earth when the Sun goes red giant." Of COURSE I know about that, and am curious as to why you bring it up to me when I did not even address the issue.

However, I was serious about college majors moving away quietly and slowly from the GW crew if they want a serious career in the climate industry. The house of cards has already begun to fall.....

I have to tell you that I also was wondering why you are talking about global warming issues or ice ages when all previous responses addressed the time when Earth really becomes uninhabitable. You began your post with pointing out how resilient humans and our planet are. It made little sense after several people talked about the sun destroying life on Earth. I guess your post lacked somewhat of a transition to a much earlier time on our planet.

BTW, and I just cannot resist, "science" is spelled with an "i". But maybe you knew that too.

[JimBob]

JimBob - You wrote: "Global warming is a fact. It is occurring..."

Wrong again, Grasshopper! The earth has been cooling for about one decade already. Further, sunspot cycle 24 is already going on three years late.

You also wrote: "If you want to be a positive contributor, inform yourself." OK However, before I put out the extra effort, I want you to tell me if you know whether or not anytime in the last 2,000 years the climate has been warmer then it now is......

Too bad you can't be bothered with a little bit of a Google search. You would have found all of the evidence that states you are absolutely, totally WRONG about global warming being myth. The chart attached, a compilation of all sources, show the earth is experiencing a warming trend.



From Wikipedia "Global Warming"

[Nizzle]

Global warming is happening now! Simple as that.
How big mankind's influence is, is uncertain.

[JimBob]

You also wrote: "If you want to be a positive contributor, inform yourself." OK However, before I put out the extra effort, I want you to tell me if you know whether or not anytime in the last 2,000 years the climate has been warmer then it now is......

I am not falling for that trap - one ice core from Greenland does not a comprehensive picture of climate make.

[Jonathan Madriaga]

I think in the next decade, population stabilization/decrease will occur in developed countries with a higher elder dependency due to change female empowerment, decision on parenthood, contraceptives. On the other hand, developing countries will continue to increase in density and birth rate will exceed death rate, even with HIV implications. With this in mind, resources will continue to deplete as technological advances, bigger population, etc. in the near future, ultimately contributing to pollution, degradation to ecosystem.

Even with many social groups and government promoting alternative fossil fuels and 'green' motives, there hasn't been any real action to tackle this growing phenomenon. A vast majority of the world do not take this issue seriously and I think that once we face these consequences, there will be a whole lot of scrambling and panic.

[litespeed]

Jim - You wrote: "I am not falling for that trap - one ice core from Greenland does not a comprehensive picture of climate make."

You still fail to answer my question whether or not you are aware of anytime in the last 2,000 years the temperature was warmer then now. You dismissed my question by refering to "one ice core". Well, grasshopper, I have reassembled my Roman Era Climate data and here it is.

http://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/index.php?topic=22348.125

[litespeed]

JM

Thank you for your thoughtful post. However, IMHO the situation might not be as serious as you think. First, the industrial world is in near population balance. This means a stable demand for resources. Further, the general prosperity of the industrial world permits it to improve both local and planetary environmental conditions as a sort of luxury which benefits everybody.

The industrializing world will IMHO follow along this very same well worn path. A certain level of prosperity changes priorities.  For instance, I would rather have a hand pump for water then a bucket from a dirty stream.  After that, I would rather have a piped system to my local area then walk to the pump. Then I might want piped water into my house, and even a hot water heater. Pretty soon I might notice the local power plant that supplies water and power smells bad, and I complain about it. Then I notice the dirt road could use more gravel and less mud.

This cycle DOES have an end. Everyone needs to determine what level of prosperity is sufficient. However, the basic levels are well known. 1) weather proof shelter, 2) water and sanitary systems 3) reliable electricity, 4) a road system sufficient for all weather on a bus or Honda 90, at least. 5) local education sufficient for higher education etc etc.

All things in time will come to those who persevere.

[Bored chemist]

Bored chemist - You wrote:

"I take it that you have no idea what will happen to the Earth when the Sun goes red giant." Of COURSE I know about that, and am curious as to why you bring it up to me when I did not even address the issue.

Global warming may well prove to be a serious pain in the arse.
It may lead to wars and political unrest as well as many deaths from drought and such.
However it's unlikely to make the world uninhabitable.
The OP asked about when the earth will become uninhabitable. That has nothing to do with farty little changes in the climate. Plenty of people have been saying that warming is a good thing. Others have said that it will simply move the temperate zones a bit further from the equator.
On the other hand, as several people noticed and commented on, the sun going red giant will certainly make the earth uninhabitable in about a billion years.

There was, therefore, no reason for you to raise your pet subject in this thread.
That's why I asked about it. I was trying to find out if you knew the differrence between something which will probaly kill a lot of people and something which, as the OP asked, will make the earth uninhabitable.
It seems that you don't.