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Asked by medeina to Sive, Cathal, Ciara, Emma, Michael on 10 Nov 2013.
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Sive Finlay answered on 10 Nov 2013:
Hi Medeina,
Great question!
I don’t think the world will end because of pollution in the sense that I think (hope!) that no matter how bad human pollution gets we can’t physically destroy the planet. I do, however, think that if we continue using the Earth’s resources and polluting the environment at our current rate then the natural world as we know it will certainly change dramatically, but hopefully not end.
The Earth is around 4.6 billion years old and the world has changed dramatically many times in that history. Humans have only been around for a teeny tiny proportion of that time; if the history of the earth was compressed into one year then the first humans wouldn’t show up until around noon on December 31st! So the world has changed many times already in its history.
The worrying thing about humans is that, although we’ve only been around for a very short time, we’ve had a very significant impact on our world. There were five major mass extinctions of living species in the Earth’s history; the death of the dinosaurs is the most famous but not the most dramatic one. Mass extinctions usually take place over millions of years and are coupled with extensive environmental change. Many scientists think that we are in the middle of a 6th mass extinction and that human impacts on the environment, such as pollution, are one of the major influences.
So the world’s environment and the composition of its living species have changed many times in the past and we seem to be both living through and contributing to another era of great environmental change. If we continue our polluting ways, I don’t think the world will end but I do think it will change dramatically and human society, if it’s going to survive, will also have to change dramatically to be able to cope.
Sive
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Michael Nolan answered on 11 Nov 2013:
This is a topic we discuss and take a great interest in and is a super question…
If you mean that the planet will somehow be destroyed, then the answer is no. Earth has had many, what we would call, catastrophies happen over 4.5 billion years and is still flourishing. There have been mass extinctions that are well known. Even a full scale nuclear war would have little effect on the planet. To destroy earth you have to beat the gravitational binding energy that holds the planet together, at a cost of 10 to the power of 32 J, which is 2 to the power of 14 megatonnes (200000000000000); by contrast the world’s nuclear arsenal is around 5000 megatonnes.
The question I prefer to discuss is with regard to humankind’s (and possibly all animals except insects) existence on earth and there the answer would be definitely yes. Think about what you know about pollution –
1. gases such as carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides, all released when we consume fossil fuels poison the atmosphere.
2. Materials pumped into the water that should never be in water make the water supply more and more dangerous to our health.
3. Destruction of forests/grasslands/soil etc means less space to grow plants/food.
So if we keep on the present path of development all of these factors will work to end our time on earth. One worrying point is that there is a feedback cycle as well – as you increase CO2 emissions the changes to climate feedback to produce even larger changes in climate.
A good resource is here: http://www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/gfn/page/world_footprint/
and the worrying point is in the amount of resources we use and waste we expect earth to sustain, we use *one and a half earths* per year. At some point this has to stop.So our polluting of the planet will ultimately see our demise unless we make significant changes. Our approach is to use cheap, available, recycleable materials to use sunlight to make fuels and depollute water.
M
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Cathal Cummins answered on 13 Nov 2013:
The Earth has been around a long time and has had cataclysmic events occur over it’s lifetime. At one point, for example, many scientists believe it was covered from the North pole to the South pole in snow — a so-called snowball Earth. So many species have come and gone. We are a very clever animal, us humans, but we are behaving in a very irresponsible manner. The world will not end because of our actions but our brief stay on planet Earth could be cut short by our actions.
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Emma Cahill answered on 14 Nov 2013:
Hey Medeina,
I doubt it, we are perhaps one of the most resourcefull species on the planet so I think we will find a way! Look already at how quickly solar power and other renewable energies have developed… at the moment they dont produce enough power for us compared to other options like nuclear power, but alot of scientists including engineers and biologists and mpre are working on this. Some have even managed to make bacteria produce motor oil, by altering their genetics!
If we dont have a problem for energy, another point that might be more dangerous for the world is the rate at which human influence is destroying biodiversity (by reducing the number of species on earth). It might not cause the end of the world, but things might change a lot quicker than we think…
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