By now you are probably fully aware of global warming. But just in case you don't know this, temperatures are really rising.

In fact, 2016 was the hottest year on record. Temperatures this year have risen 1.3 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial averages. This brings us dangerously close to the 1.5 degree limit that international policymakers have set for global warming.

Climatologist Gavin Schmidt, who is director of the Goddard Institute for Space Research (NASA), says that global warming is not stopping. And everything that has happened so far fits into this system.

This means that even if carbon dioxide emissions fell to zero tomorrow, we would still see climate change for many centuries. But, as we know, no one is going to stop emissions tomorrow. Thus, the key issue now is to slow climate change enough for humanity to adapt to it.

So what will the Earth look like over the next 100 years if we can still adapt to climate change?

Changes in degrees

Schmidt estimates that 1.5 degrees (2.7 Fahrenheit) is an unattainable goal in the long term. Most likely, we will reach this figure by 2030.

However, Schmidt is more optimistic about temperatures rising 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels. Although these are precisely the indicators the UN hopes to avoid.

Let's assume that we end up somewhere between these indicators. This means that by the end of the century the world will warm 3 degrees Fahrenheit or so more than it is now.

Temperature anomalies

However, the average temperature of the Earth's surface cannot fully reflect climate change. Temperature anomalies—that is, how much the temperature in a given area will deviate from what is normal for that region—will become commonplace.

For example, last winter the temperature in the Arctic Circle rose above zero for one day. Of course, this is cold for our latitudes, but extremely hot for the Arctic. This is not a normal phenomenon, but it will happen much more often.

This means that years like this, when the lowest sea ice levels were recorded, will become commonplace. Summers in Greenland could be completely ice-free by 2050.

Even 2015 was not as bad as 2012, when 97% of the Greenland ice sheet began to melt during the summer. Typically, such a phenomenon can be observed once every hundred years, but we will be able to see it every 6 years by the end of this century.

Sea level rise

However, ice in Antarctica will remain relatively stable, making a minimal contribution to sea level rise.

According to the best-case scenario, ocean levels will rise by 60-90 centimeters by the end of 2100. But a sea level rise of even less than 90 centimeters would destroy the homes of 4 million people.

However, changes in the world's oceans will not only occur at the poles, where the ice is melting. It will continue to oxidize in the tropics. The oceans absorb about a third of all carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, causing their temperatures and acidity to rise.

If climate change continues, virtually all coral reef habitats will be devastated. If we stick to the best case scenario, half of all tropical corals will disappear.

Hot summer

But the oceans are not the only place where things will heat up. Even if we limit emissions, the number of extremely warm summer days in the tropics will increase by one and a half times after 2050. Further north, 10 to 20% of the days a year will be hotter.

Let's compare this to a business-as-usual scenario in which temperatures in the tropics remain unusually warm throughout the summer. This means that in temperate climate zones the number of warm days will increase by 30%.

But even slight warming will affect water resources. In a 2013 paper, scientists used models to estimate what the world would look like after a drought that was about 10% worse than now. Climate change could bring severe drought to 40% of our planet, twice as much as there is now.

Weather anomalies

It is worth paying attention to the weather. If the 2015-2016 El Niño was any indication, we're about to experience more dramatic natural disasters. By 2070, more extreme storm surges, wildfires and heat waves will hit the earth.

It's time to make a decision

Now humanity stands on the brink of an abyss. We may ignore the warning signs and continue to pollute the Earth, resulting in what climate scientists call a “very different planet.” This means that the climate in the future will be different from the current one, just as the current climate is different from that of the Ice Age.

Or we can make innovative decisions. Many of the scenarios proposed here assumed that we would achieve negative emissions by 2100 - meaning that we would be able to absorb more than we emit using carbon capture technology.

Schmidt says that by 2100 the planet will reach a state somewhere between "a little warmer than today" and "much warmer than today."

But the difference between small and large on the scale of the Earth is calculated in millions of lives saved.

The approximate age of humanity is 200 thousand years, and during this time it has faced a huge number of changes. Since our emergence on the African continent, we have managed to colonize the entire world and even reached the Moon. Beringia, which once connected Asia with North America, has long gone under water. What changes or events might we expect if humanity continues to exist for another billion years?

Well, let's start with the future in 10 thousand years. We will face the problem of the year 10,000. Software that encodes the AD calendar will no longer be able to encode dates from this point on. This will be a real problem, and furthermore, if current globalization trends continue, human genetic variation will no longer be regionally organized by that point. This means that all human genetic traits, such as skin and hair color, will be distributed evenly across the planet.

In 20 thousand years, the world's languages ​​will contain only one in a hundred vocabulary words of their modern counterparts. In fact, all modern languages ​​will lose recognition.

In 50 thousand years, the Earth will begin a second ice age, despite the current effects of global warming. Niagara Falls will be completely washed away by the Erie River and disappear. Due to glacial uplift and erosion, numerous lakes on the Canadian Shield will also cease to exist. In addition, the day on Earth will increase by one second, as a result of which an adjustment second will have to be added to each day.

In 100 thousand years, the stars and constellations visible from Earth will be strikingly different from today. In addition, according to preliminary calculations, this is exactly the amount of time it will take to completely transform Mars into a habitable planet like Earth.

In 250 thousand years, the Lo'ihi volcano will rise above the surface, forming a new island in the Hawaiian island chain.

In 500 thousand years, it is very likely that an asteroid with a diameter of 1 km will crash into the Earth, unless humanity somehow prevents this. And Badlands National Park in South Dakota will completely disappear by this point.

In 950,000 years, the Arizona meteorite crater, considered the best-preserved meteorite impact crater on the planet, will be completely eroded.

In 1 million years, a monstrous volcanic eruption will most likely occur on Earth, during which 3 thousand 200 cubic meters of ash will be thrown out. This will be reminiscent of the Toba super eruption 70,000 years ago, which nearly caused the extinction of humanity. In addition, the star Betelgeuse will explode as a supernova, and this will be visible from Earth even during the daytime.

Context

In 10 million years, much of western Africa will separate from the rest of the continent. A new ocean basin will form between them, and Africa will split into two separate pieces of land.

In 50 million years, Mars' satellite Phobos will crash into its planet, causing widespread destruction. And on Earth, the rest of Africa will collide with Eurasia and “close” the Mediterranean Sea forever. Between the two merging layers, a new mountain range is formed, similar in size to the Himalayas, one of the peaks of which may be higher than Everest.

In 60 million years, the Canadian Rockies will be leveled, becoming a flat plain.

In 80 million years, the entire Hawaiian Islands will have sunk, and in 100 million years, the Earth will likely be hit by an asteroid similar to the one that wiped out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago, unless disaster is prevented artificially. By this point, among other things, the rings around Saturn will disappear.

In 240 million years, the Earth will finally complete a full revolution around the center of the galaxy from its current position.

In 250 million years, all the continents of our planet will merge into one, like Pangea. One of the options for its name is Pangea Ultima, and it will look something like the picture.

Then, after 400-500 million years, the supercontinent will again split into parts.

In 500-600 million years, at a distance of 6 thousand 500 light years from Earth, a deadly gamma-ray burst will occur. If the calculations are correct, this explosion could seriously damage the Earth's ozone layer, causing mass extinction of species.

In 600 million years, the Moon will be far enough away from the Sun to cancel the phenomenon of a total solar eclipse once and for all. In addition, the growing luminosity of the Sun will have serious consequences for our planet. The movements of tectonic plates will stop, and carbon dioxide levels will greatly decrease. C3 photosynthesis will no longer occur, and 99% of the earth's flora will die.

After 800 million years, CO2 levels will continue to fall until C4 photosynthesis stops. Free oxygen and ozone will disappear from the atmosphere, as a result of which all life on Earth will die.

And finally, in 1 billion years, the Sun's luminosity will increase by 10% compared to its current state. The Earth's surface temperature will rise to an average of 47 degrees Celsius. The atmosphere will turn into a humid greenhouse, and the world's oceans will simply evaporate. Pockets of liquid water will continue to exist at the Earth's poles, which means they will likely become the last stronghold of life on our planet.

A lot will change during this time, but a lot has changed over the past billion years. In addition to what we talked about in this video, who knows what could happen in such a long time?

InoSMI materials contain assessments exclusively from foreign media and do not reflect the position of the InoSMI editorial staff.

Several years ago, a special scientific project was created that simulated the situation of the complete simultaneous disappearance of humanity from the Earth, the future of the planet and life after people. This study had several vulnerabilities - in particular, the potential circumstances of the disappearances of people were completely ignored and the peculiarities of the operation of some iconic engineering structures were not provided for. However, in general, this study was considered objective, and its results were scientifically sound. So, here are just a few chronological markers of the supposed life of our world without us and the fate of humanity's heritage:

• one day after the disappearance of people - power outages begin all over the world: there is no one to replenish the fuel reserves of power plants, the operation of turbines stops;
• a week after the disappearance of people - at most nuclear power plants, the water cooling the working area of ​​​​the reactors will evaporate, which will lead to accidents similar to the disasters in Chernobyl and Fukushima, and radiation contamination of nearby areas. On the one hand, fires will rage in cities, on the other, real floods will begin due to breaks in water supply and sewer systems;
• a month after the disappearance of people - a new series of large fires, this time provoked by explosions of gas cylinders due to strong internal pressure. Many cities located below sea level and protected from nearby rivers and lakes by dams and dams will be partially or completely flooded;
• a year after the disappearance of people, populated areas will begin to be actively populated by wild animals, including large predators. The cities themselves will gradually turn into islands of the jungle: grass, bushes and trees will begin to grow in the cracks of city streets, in the walls and on the roofs of buildings and structures;
• five years after people disappear, city streets will be covered with a layer of soil and turn into real thickets. All clock mechanisms (except atomic ones) will stop;
• Fifty years after the disappearance of people, there is an active process of destruction of stone and concrete buildings; metal structures will remain, but the process of corrosion will begin. All near-Earth artificial satellites will leave orbit and fall into the water. There will be no sources of electricity left on Earth - solar panels will be covered with a thick layer of dust and will not be able to capture sunlight. Many cities located close to the sea coast will be flooded with seawater slowly rising through ineffective drainage systems. Due to the destruction of storage facilities for toxic substances, massive poisoning of wildlife will occur;
• a hundred years after the disappearance of people - the collapse of most of the large-scale and especially durable structures of mankind, from the Brooklyn Bridge to Big Ben. Destruction of most objects of material culture;
• a thousand years after the disappearance of people, all that remains of the cities will be green hills covered with vegetation, with rare occasional remains of stone and reinforced concrete structures. All modern storage media - paper, magnetic tapes, laser discs - will cease to exist. The memory of civilization will be destroyed;
• ten thousand years after the disappearance of people, the only traces of human existence on earth will remain individual large-scale stone structures erected in ancient times using exclusively natural materials: Egyptian pyramids, sections of the Great Wall of China, and the like.

So, what will happen in 100 years? The following chronology will describe not only the events that await us in the future, but also the inventions that are about to appear.

Earth in 100 years

2013 – Wall Street faces another stock market crash, which will mark the beginning of a new global crisis.

2014 – China deploys its missiles in Sudan, causing unrest in international society.

2015 – The year will be very eventful. Russia will report that the country's natural resources (oil, uranium, copper, gold) have reached a critical minimum. The Algerian-German concern Desertec will begin construction of a solar power station in North Africa. Scientists will be able to find a cure for autism. Bangladesh will claim a catastrophic shortage of fresh water due to rising sea levels and will ask the World Bank for a $9 billion subsidy to purchase desalination plants.

2016 – Cultured meat goes on sale. For the first time in the American presidential election, it will be possible to cast your vote online.

2017 – The first experiment was conducted to create artificial seminal fluid from a woman’s stem cells and subsequent conception without a man.

2018 – Withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan. Each country considers itself a winner. Afghanistan's sovereignty remains unshakable. In parallel with this event, the lunar program is being resumed. The four-person crew will spend about a month on the lunar surface. The goal of the project is to prove that living on the Earth’s natural satellite using only its resources is quite possible. This same year, a new high-speed railway will be built, crossing 17 countries and designed to connect Europe and Asia. The first train along it will run from Beijing to Paris, its speed will be 300 km/h. The global crisis that began in 2013 will end this year.

2019 – There will be an acute shortage of women in China. The government will allow same-sex marriage. The first prototype of a flying car will also be tested in America.

2020 – Active development of space tourism. The first private spacecraft will send everyone into Earth orbit for a day. Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic's first spaceship will land with tourists on the surface of the Moon. The cost of such a tour will cost about 200 million dollars. The first manned expedition to Mars will also be formed. In the same year, permission will be issued to carry out autonomous work that destroys cancer cells in the human body. Megacorporations will undermine the authority of the governments of leading countries and ultimately deprive them of many powers. State borders in our usual sense will be erased. Cultural differences will still remain in people's memories.

2021-2024 – It becomes possible to implant microchips into the brain that can give their owner the ability to telepathy, increased memory reserves, and it will also be possible to introduce various kinds of controllers into the body that signal the state of a person, and give some kind of bonuses in the form of built-in mobile communications, etc. .d.

2025 - The population will increase to 8 billion people. The globalization of the economy will allow many enterprising people to become rich. The number of dollar millionaires will be 1 billion people, while everyone else will not even have enough fresh water.

2026 – Chips will be implanted up to the skin of all US residents, storing all biometric data and allowing the location of an individual to be determined.

2027 – First successful human cloning. Scientists will be able to understand how genetics influences a person’s character.

2028 – The total number of deaths from AIDS will reach 600 million. A cure has never been found. AIDS becomes the deadliest epidemic in history.

2029 – The appearance of computers 1000 times more powerful than today’s. New chips are also appearing on the market, by implanting which you can have a direct connection with a computer and the Internet.

2030 – All trains, planes, cars and yachts are controlled by a robotic autopilot. Human intervention in their work is required only in extreme cases. Thanks to this technology, it was possible to reduce the number of accidents involving these vehicles to almost a minimum.

2031 – Sex becomes just a form of leisure time. The function of procreation has been simplified to artificial insemination and cloning. Pregnancy will be the lot of the poor and uncultured, as well as third world citizens.

2032 – The appearance of lenses capable of giving a person not only excellent vision, but also eliminating the need to know additional languages. Lenses will be implanted for everyone. They will have built-in face and speech recognition technology, due to which a person will see a translation from any unfamiliar language in the form of text right before his eyes. They will also have built-in zoom, memory of faces, the ability to access the Internet, etc.

2033 – America switches to a fundamentally new type of fuel, getting rid of oil dependence. Oil prices are falling sharply. The Middle East is suffering widespread losses. Russia enters into an alliance with Iran and China and squeezes the EU.

2034 – Micro sensors capable of recording the behavior of the nervous system appear. Thus, a market for the sale of feelings is organized. Orgasms, happiness, grief, inspiration, etc.

2035 – Firms appear offering artificial cultivation of human organs based on the client’s DNA.

2040 – People monitor their health through genetic therapy. Shower cabins scan the general condition of internal organs, toilets collect tests. The average life expectancy in developed countries reaches 90 years.

2041 – The ban on geological exploration activities in Antarctica will be lifted. World powers will immediately begin to develop the deposits. As a result, the ecology of the White Continent will be destroyed. Next up is the Arctic.

2042 – Humanity crosses the 9 billion mark.

2048 – The number of ocean inhabitants declines sharply. People don't have enough fish.

2049 – “Programmable matter” technologies appear. Millions of microscopic devices will gather into a swarm that will take the desired shape, color, density and texture of any object.

2050 – The world population will reach 10.1 billion. The average life expectancy will be 100 years.

2060 – 95% of the world's population will use only three types of currency. In the struggle for primacy, they will fight, offering better and better conditions, as banks, pension funds and plastic card systems do now.

2070 – The glaciers and permafrost of the North Pole will finally melt, and the Arctic Ocean will become fully navigable. Active development of a new habitable territory will begin. In the same year, many animals that became extinct many thousands of years ago will be cloned from DNA.

2075 – Average life expectancy is 150 years. Humanity is on the verge of a discovery that can give people immortality.

2080 – Due to global warming, the level of the Ocean will rise to such limits that 70 million people in Africa will be inundated.

2090 – The emergence of a new generation network. Now, instead of a computer, the human body acts as a client. All information goes directly to the brain.

2095 – Thanks to the advent of new technology, it is possible to copy a person’s personality onto a chip, which in turn is integrated into any cybernetic shell of one’s choice. Man acquired immortality.

2100 – Due to global warming, a third of the land has become desert. Fresh water is now as valuable as oil once was. Russia, as always, is on horseback - its climate will only benefit from warming, and there is more than enough water here. Due to the huge amount of carbon dioxide. The oceans will have increased acidity, making it unsuitable for the existence of a huge number of microorganisms, which, in turn, serve as food for larger animals. The population will increase from 10 to 15 billion people. Active space exploration will begin. A cure for cancer will be found. Artificial Intelligence will appear. Due to the development of cybernetic technologies, people will look like robots, and those, in turn, will look like people.

Of course, these are just forecasts and the exact answer is what will happen in 100 years It’s difficult, but many have already begun to think - if the outcome of events is exactly this, then does humanity need such a future. On the other hand, people once did not trust cars and computers in the same way, and cinema and radio were generally considered almost magic. Nevertheless, today they are firmly embedded in our lives and are an integral part of it. Therefore, as they say, wait and see what will happen in 100 years.

It has long been known that this end of the world is inevitable; sooner or later, the planet may be overtaken by natural disasters that will contribute to the destruction of the Earth.

It is worth remembering that overconsumption of natural resources and global warming are relentlessly leading us towards the end of the planet's existence. Do not be upset, for the next few thousand years the planet will be relatively safe, despite climate change and the gradual displacement of continents. But still, the world population is already making forecasts about the fate of the planet, thanks to which 10 predictions about the end of the world have been formed. But today we'll talk about 10 sad facts about the future of the Earth.

Fact No. 10. New ice age in 50 thousand years

Humanity will exist for another 50 thousand years. It is unlikely that during this time humanity will die from a lack of resources or another world war. The world population expects new ice age. The last ice age ended about 15 thousand years ago!

Fact No. 9. In 100 thousand years, a supervolcano will melt everyone

According to scientists' forecasts, in 100 thousand years the Earth will suffer from a supervolcano eruption. The volcanic eruption will be so powerful that it will cover 400 cubic kilometers with magma.

There are such volcanoes in the mountains of California, but more than a million years have passed since their last eruption. It should be added that super-eruptions are very different from disasters like earthquakes, tsunamis, storms, floods and asteroid impacts - such an eruption would cause enormous harm to the entire civilization.

Fact No. 8. Meteorite fall after 500 thousand years

The biggest shock in modern history was the fall of the Tunguska meteorite in Russia, which resulted in an explosion of energy approximately 1000 times greater than that of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. The diameter of the meteorite was up to 190 m in diameter. Scientists have calculated that in 500 thousand years, some space fragments measuring about 1 kilometer in diameter will fall to Earth. As a result, the Earth will be completely destroyed.

Fact No. 7. Collapse of the Grand Canyon and Arizona Crater after 2 million years

If we assume that the Earth is not touched by meteorites or supervolcanic eruptions, nothing happens during the ice age, then in two million years everything will collapse on its own. For example, the Grand Canyon appeared due to the erosive effects of water flowing into the Colorado River - in 2 million years there will be an increase in the level of snow and ice, which will lead to the complete destruction of the canyon. The same thing could happen to the Arizona Crater and the rocky desert badlands of South Dakota.

Fact No. 6. Flood in East Africa in 10 million years

The East African Rift tectonic plates may continue to expand. Eventually, both the Somali and Nubian plates will break completely away from each other, causing a new ocean basin to divide Africa. Now the Earth is literally being torn apart - new continents and oceans are being created, which is just a cycle of development of the planet.

Fact No. 5. In 80 million years, Hawaii will disappear under water

Our planet is constantly changing, and all the continents that exist today were parts of a single continent 300 million years ago. supercontinent - Pangea. Over the next 80 million years, changes to the planet will continue as Africa splits apart and a new ocean forms. Due to rising tides, volcanic activity and the ice age, Hawaii will be completely hidden under water.

The California coast will begin to sink into the ocean due to its location on the San Andreas Fault. The divided African continent will eventually collide with Europe and Asia, thereby closing the Mediterranean basin, resulting in the formation of a mountain range similar to the Himalayas.

Fact No. 4. Depletion of the ozone layer in 500 million years, mass extinction

In 500 million years, there will be a surge of gamma radiation, which will cause damage to the ozone layer. Under the influence of global warming, volcanic activity, meteorite falls The ozone layer will be completely destroyed and life on Earth will end.

Fact No. 3. In 800 million years, all remaining life forms will die

A mass extinction does not mean that absolutely everything will die. From this point of view, after the human race, there will be other forms of life on Earth that will be able to adapt and will develop, despite the endless changes in the surrounding world. If they manage to cope with the influence of a supernova, which will destroy almost all life on the surface of the globe, then they will be able to survive for at least another 300 million years. After this, the level of carbon dioxide will drop to levels at which photosynthesis becomes impossible.

In 800 million years, all volcanoes will go out. Will disappear Carbon dioxide is a very important element, necessary both for plant life and for the entire atmosphere as a whole. Its disappearance will not only eliminate the possibility of the further existence of any plants, but will also lead to the disappearance of oxygen and ozone from the atmosphere, which in turn will destroy all multicellular organisms on the planet. In 800 million years, the Earth will be inhabited only by single-celled organisms..

Fact No. 2. In 2.3 billion years, the Earth's core will turn to ice

In 2.3 billion years there will be no life on the planet - everything will be destroyed, covered with magma, craters, and radiation everywhere. The planet's outer crust will freeze and stop the magnetic field, and charged particles of solar energy will destroy all remnants of our atmosphere. By that time, the temperature in the sun will increase significantly, which will lead to the complete evaporation of water from the surface of the Earth.

Fact No. 1. In 8 billion years, our planet will die when it collides with the Sun

In 8 billion years, all life on the planet will burn out under the influence of rising temperatures in the Sun. Even single-celled organisms will die, and the earth's poles will reach an average temperature of 147 degrees Celsius. Freezing the core would throw the planet out of balance, and increasing the distance to the Moon would tilt the Earth dangerously.

The surface of the Earth will resemble the surface of Venus today. When the Sun turns red and becomes 256 times larger, it will engulf the Earth.

All of the above referred to the distant future. But man is a master of harming himself, and is already capable of causing local cataclysms around himself today. Are we too arrogant to think that we can change anything and everything in the environment? The world's scientists are worried.