Well, OK, the end is about 7.5 billion years away… but that’s pretty near in terms of eternity. A couple of scientists at some school in Washington have written a new book about our dying planet. A review states:
“Astrobiologists”… how cool is that for a job title?
Some would tell me not to worry… that 7,500,000,000 years is a long way off… but the idea that this planet will someday be gone is, I think, still somewhat discomforting.
So couple of students in Washington are telling us what we already know. I don’t get it. What’s the book called … “Solar system evolution for dummies”? Non-news and a non-post if I ever saw one.
Tigerman: just logging on after a long day at the “office.” And I found your post very interesting! I had heard about this news in the China Post a few days ago, or maybe it was an internet story, but your outlining of the time table, 4 am 5 am, 12 noon, that brought it all home much better. Thanks for the post.
The fact the this Earth has had its day in the sun, so to speak, and that we are now on a downward spiral, is good reason to enjoy each day to the fullest even more, get more drunk, fuck more beautiful women, eat more glorious dinners and worry less about things that don’t matter so much, like making heaps of money or rising to the top of my field. Of course, it would help if I had a “field”. Sigh.
Anyway, keep posting these kinds of things. They make the forum more interesting. There’s room for everyone, I think. That is, until we all vaporize. Maybe after World War III, of which we are on the brink of… BURP!
Well, if your house is about to fall off a cliff, you just move somewhere else. At least we have ample time to prepare. If we assume that the present human invention/development rate continues for another few centuries, we’ll be able to figure out something at the time the house tips over. After all, we have 7.500.000.000 years to do it in. (or was it 1.000.000.000)?
I think it was just 500,00,000, barely enough time to get my next order of books from Amazon. And I’m curious what the ‘scientists’ think will take over after plants die out, because then even insects won’t survive, or at least that’s what I remember from my high school biology (regular, not astro-) classes.