Humans could be wiped out by a catastrophic asteroid strike, commit self-destruction with worldwide nuclear war or succumb to the ravages caused by the climate emergency. But humans are a hardy bunch, so the most likely scenario involves a combination of catastrophes that could wipe us out completely.
If the natural risk were sufficiently high, then it would be highly unlikely that humanity would have survived as long as it has. Based on a formalization of this argument, researchers have concluded that we can be confident that natural risk is lower than 1 in 14,000 per year.
Will humans survive? Yes, almost certainly, but the factors that determine the outcome are so immensely complex that our blunt and instrumental efforts are almost meaningless. The only thing that makes a difference is the combined impact of all individual animals including humans.
With 6.8 billion people alive today, it's hard to fathom that humans were ever imperiled. But 1.2 million years ago, only 18,500 early humans were breeding on the planet--evidence that there was a real risk of extinction for our early ancestors, according to a new study.
If every human disappeared, homes would decay, animals would fend for themselves, and cities would revert back to nature. There would be no more pollution or hunting, but also no more farms or pets. Scientists would be able to find evidence of humans after 15-20,000 years.
Without human intervention, the landscape would be more homogeneous, and fewer species would live there. Sadly, humans are also responsible for the replacement of these landscapes by ones with low biological diversity because of more intensive uses. Our species has done nothing for the benefit of life on Earth.
"In a world without humans, there would be a much bigger diversity of large mammals, and if you see a larger diversity of large mammals, you tend to see a much more open habitat," Faurby told Live Science.
But even if that common ancestor still existed, the fact that evolution is the result of both random mutation and a process of natural selection imposed by environmental conditions, means it's highly unlikely that it would ever retrace its steps in quite the same way.
More reproduction followed, and more mistakes, the process repeating over billions of generations. Finally, Homo sapiens appeared. But we aren't the end of that story. Evolution won't stop with us, and we might even be evolving faster than ever.
Just as our planet existed for more than 4 billion years before humans appeared, it will last for another 4 billion to 5 billion years, long after it becomes uninhabitable for humans. Shichun Huang is an associate professor of Earth and planetary sciences at the University of Tennessee.
The model, called Mindy, provides a terrifying glimpse at what people could look like in 800 years if our love of technology continues. According to the company, humans in the year 3000 could have a hunched back, wide neck, clawed hand from texting and a second set of eyelids.
By 2030, almost all countries will experience “extreme hot” weather every other year due mainly to greenhouse gas pollution by a handful of big emitters, according to a paper published Thursday by Communications Earth & Environment, reinforcing forecasts that the coming year will be one of the hottest on record.
However, using information gathered by paleontologists and the history of evolution, it's been estimated that 99.9% of all species are extinct. That's not all of the species living here on the Planet today. It's actually of all the species who have lived on Earth at all.
Habitat loss due to deforestation, agricultural practices and urbanization is the leading cause of extinction across the world. The other options are also causes but the major cause of extinction is habitat loss.
Earth's capacity
Many scientists think Earth has a maximum carrying capacity of 9 billion to 10 billion people.
This means that, in a hypothetical apocalypse, humanity would need a lot more than a handful of survivors to repopulate effectively. However, to retain evolutionary potential – to remain genetically flexible and diverse – the IUCN criteria suggest we would need at least 500 effective individuals.
Eat less meat, to reduce agriculture's clear-cutting of rainforests. Never buy anything made from ivory. Adopt a species, or become a "citizen scientist" for a conservation group. Vote for leaders who recognize the importance of conservation and carbon-neutral energy policies.
In 100 years, the world's population will probably be around 10 – 12 billion people, the rainforests will be largely cleared and the world would not be or look peaceful. We would have a shortage of resources such as water, food and habitation which would lead to conflicts and wars.
In the next 1,000 years, the amount of languages spoken on the planet are set to seriously diminish, and all that extra heat and UV radiation could see darker skin become an evolutionary advantage. And we're all set to get a whole lot taller and thinner, if we want to survive, that is.
There's a simple answer: Humans did not evolve from chimpanzees or any of the other great apes that live today. We instead share a common ancestor that lived roughly 10 million years ago.
Eventually humans will go extinct. At the most wildly optimistic estimate, our species will last perhaps another billion years but end when the expanding envelope of the sun swells outward and heats the planet to a Venus-like state. But a billion years is a long time.
It's impossible. The DNA has changed so much, even just in the 68 million years, since teeth were lost in the, you know, living bird lineage of dinosaurs, cause teeth were actually lost in dinosaurs, like at least a dozen times. And the beak was evolved, you know, teeth lost really beak evolved many times.
"It's impossible for us because our bodies are super complex," Martínez said. Humans have stem cells that can repair and even regrow parts of the body, such as in the liver, but the human body is not made almost entirely of these cells, like hydra are.