Planetary 'autopsies' indicate worlds like Earth common in the cosmos

Re:Planetary 'autopsies' indicate worlds like Earth common i... by raxxorrax on Monday October 21, 2019 @05:45AM (#21310553)

While I think we should reduce our footprint on our ecosystem, I doubt we could do enough damage to eradicate life by blowing away the atmosphere or using all oxygen and nitrogen that basically only carbon dioxide remains - not even with American cars.

The more probable scenario would be that humans destroy the foundation of their own food chain until the population starts to decline in a catastrophic manner. But that seems to be the case for any type of mammal that experienced a significant population grow.

Of course human with their adaptability would damage a lot of biodiversity in the process of "dying out".

The truth is that Mars and Venus are comparatively "shit" even while fitting some conditions as "worlds like Earth", even if their signatures while being swallowed by a white dwarf would be very similar.

But the article is true and there could indeed be a lot of other blue marbles given the size of the cosmos.

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Re:Planetary 'autopsies' indicate worlds like Earth common i... by vfc1 on Monday October 21, 2019 @06:41AM (#21310758)

Due to the exponential rise of the human population, which shows no signs of slowing down, it might go quite fast.

There are many geological processes that get triggered in an exponential way and can radically change the ecosystem.

For example, melting a part of ice cap means less heat gets reflected back into space, meaning more heat that will further melt more ice cap, etc. a potential positive feedback mechanism that once triggered cannot be controlled.

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