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Earth's Period of Habitability Is Nearly Over

Posted by kdawson on from the nice-while-it-lasts dept.

xp65 writes "Scientists at this year's XXVIIth General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil agree that we do not yet know how ubiquitous or how fragile life is, but that: 'The Earth's period of habitability is nearly over on a cosmological timescale. In a half to one billion years the Sun will start to be too luminous and warm for water to exist in liquid form on Earth, leading to a runaway greenhouse effect in less than 2 billion years.' Other surprising claims from this conference: that the Sun may not be the ideal kind of star to nurture life, and that the Earth may not be the ideal size."

2 of 756 comments (clear)

  1. Re: Universal Persecution of the Christian Faith by jedidiah · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Nope.

    One faction was just strong enough to wipe out the others.

    Also, there are plenty of people willing to claim that other Xians are
    too busy doing "something else" to be proper Xians. This can be a lot of
    fun to watch if you live in a "mixed" community.

    --
    A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
  2. Re:Dang! Things were just getting fun by Dr.+Spork · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    I totally agree. The Greens in the US and Germany have the same sort of myopia. This is very difficult for me, because on most issues, I tend to agree with the Greens more than just about any other political party. But on this one issue, they are so obviously irrational that I understand why many of my friends can't take them seriously. I love the Greens but I just can't defend their anti-nuclear kneejerk position. Maybe when the 60's hippie wing of the party dies out, they'll rethink this.