We could save it, you know. But that'd mean an end to life as we know it.
Do you really think we're going to stop driving cars or using electricity?
Of course not. We're consumerists and we love to consume. We're like little viruses, having our fun in the poor, miserable host.
But a virus that kills its host is doomed. And so are we. It might not be 100 years. It might not be 500.
But at some point, Earth will not be fit for humans, unless something massive changes in how we live. But that won't happen, will it? That's why you're here, on the internet, in a modern house, and you likely benefit from automotive traffic, be it car or shipping truck.
If we really wanted to stop this sort of doom from happening though, we could.
Solar power and nuclear power are both options. But as long as we use burnable fuel, the atmosphere will become filled with greenhouse gases. Those gases will warm the planet, including the oceans, leading to the sublimination of methane deep within the ocean. It'll bubble to the surface, and just like that, we're Venus.
Venus. The hell-planet. That'd be us. An alien would travel to our star system and say "Look, all the planets here are inhospitable hellscapes. Utter nightmares. Let's go home." Wouldn't that be depressing?
Earth would be a terrifyingly infertile wasteland, perhaps too hot for even water to exist in liquid form. We'd be utterly doomed. Maybe some life would continue, but humans?
Ha. Don't think we'll survive such a thing. Not easily, anyways. Even if we did make it through the apocalypse, it won't be fun. It'd be hot, humid and humiliating. We'd have to live naked, as animals, because it'd be too hot to ever wear clothing. The sun would pierce the thick haze, burning our skin. If we ever touched even a single ray of sunshine, it'd toast us quick.
Farming wouldn't be a thing because all the big land animals will be extinct too. We'd suffer greatly. Only vegans who could survive off tree bark and bitter grass would pull through. Yup. Tree bark and bitter grass would be the only thing left to eat, unless you wanted to eat the monstrous insects that'd creep around.
Everyday life would be a burden. We'd wake up from our beds sweating. We'd sweat the entire day, unable to do anything but smoke the genetically modified herbs and hope for some relief from the endless torture. Would it do any good? Of course not. Although corn might grow, it'll be so sickly sweet and nutritionless from the endless genetic modifications, that eating it would nearly poison us. Just my prediction, at least.
We'd try to keep gardens, but the swarms of GMO mosquitoes would lay their eggs any place fertile enough to farm, and devour anyone who dares enter. Farmers would be literally eaten alive by genetically altered mosquitoes. Can you imagine what that would look like? It'd be pure madness, I say.
But this desolate future could be averted by the use of advanced, efficient, and clean sources of energy. However, people are terrified of nuclear, even liquid fluoride thorium reactors, and too skeptical of solar power. So I doubt it.
Liquid fluoride thorium reactors, or LFTRs, are small, and relatively simple. A LFTR is great because it operates at low pressure, so if something goes wrong, there’s no boom. They require high temperatures to work, which means if there’s an electrical problem and the heat goes out, it can’t go out of control. As soon as it cools down, the reaction stops.
The coolant AND the fuel are both inseparable, so if there’s a leak, the coolant goes with it, instantly cooling down any spills. The best part, is that there is very little long-term waste. It’s very safe, and quite durable, so I’d recommend LFTRs if you want to keep the planet from apocalypse.
Solar energy is developing quickly, but incrementally. That sort of advancement puts people off, because if you were to look at it on a graph, it doesn't seem to be going anywhere at any one moment. It's chaotic, and you never know if someone will give the most common type of solar collector a tiny improvement, or a new developer will come out with something hugely more efficient. It's just hard to know what will happen next because it's not consistent enough.
It’s still pretty adorable how far we’ve come with solar though. But not far enough, apparently. I don’t think that’s any reason to give up, but even so, a lot of people just can't afford to spend the money on solar. What a shame.
We just don’t want to use any of the energy sources that could save us. Oil is profitable and hyped up by everyone. Gas stations love selling it, so I doubt we're about to give up on using it. Complicated forms of energy harvesting, like solar and nuclear, are just a bit too complicated and scary for us. Will humanity survive without them? I doubt it.
We're simply, completely, and utterly doomed, and there is no hope.
No hope at all.
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