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GreyDirtySnow t1_ixfdj3y wrote

Reply to comment by Deadpool11085 in Do you agree with Stephen Hawking about Earth being unsustainable? by yaykarin

As George Carlin said, the earth isn't going anywhere, we are!

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BlackTrans-Proud t1_ixfwn33 wrote

Nuclear annihilation is a far worse threat than climate change.

Life will always return, unless we irradiate the planet too severely for even single cell life.

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GreyDirtySnow t1_ixfwxk2 wrote

I disagree and here's why I think that. Nuclear annihilation would ruin life as we know it for thousands of years, but the ocean goes so deep something will survive microscopic or not. I believe whole hearted that the entire process of evolution would start over again at one point or another and the cycle would repeat itself, it would probably be a vastly different earth than it is now but I think it would eventually make a return

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noplacecold t1_ixgrkl4 wrote

I disagree with you. Nukes would cook us but animals would come back within decades

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Boezie t1_ixhgqtq wrote

Just curious, but why would we be any different from animals? Do you mean, we'll go after each other's throat, killing the few survivors? Or by animals you mean a subset of animals? (eg. rodents, fish, ...)

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TK-741 t1_ixi0qov wrote

Nukes will fall on population centres. People will gravitate toward population centres as that’s where our food/shelter and services are.

Animals are everywhere in the wild and many already burrow underground. Many animals will die, but more would survive because they live in forests or other environments which often thousands of miles away from cities.

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AdSpecialist4523 t1_ixg0g6m wrote

We could set off every nuke that's ever been produced or ever will and not eradicate all life. It is not within our power. We can screw things up for ourselves perfectly well but sterilizing this planet is thankfully well beyond our means. Much bigger things than us have failed on more than one occasion.

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BlackTrans-Proud t1_ixg72l6 wrote

You reckon cellular life forms would wait out nuclear fallout underground?

If not immediately sterilizing you dont suppose enough radiation over time would cause cumulative damage to DNA & their evolution?

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Few_Cat4214 t1_ixg82j3 wrote

A hell of a lot more than cells survived Chicxulub, I doubt we could even threaten all mammalian life, let alone the bacteria.

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5t3fan0 t1_ixh24lr wrote

"damage" and changes to dna is exactly how evolution works

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BlackTrans-Proud t1_ixj2tg6 wrote

A predictable and steady level of cosmic particles hitting dna though

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BlueRoyAndDVD t1_ixgofcq wrote

There have been life forms found to use a form of melanin to actually absorb and use radiation as an energy source, in the chernobyl core.

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sg3niner t1_ixgb94w wrote

Nuclear weapons don't work like that. They'd ruin shit for people, but everything else would get along just fine after as few as ten years after a global exchange.

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5t3fan0 t1_ixh1tdu wrote

we dont have the capabilities to irradiate the entire planet to the point of inhospitability for all life (it would require a nearby supernova)... even if we wanted, and started manufacturing nukes for that goal, we couldnt. sure we might extinguish ourselves and most animals, but some microorganism and small animal and plants are insanely resilient... enough would surely survive and repopulate after radiation wears off in a few centuries or millennia

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kldload t1_ixvnde9 wrote

There is nothing humanity can do to earth where it would not recover eventually

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BlackTrans-Proud t1_ixwdg23 wrote

Now I'm all curious.

Can you imagine any distant technology that could permanently eradicate life on earth?

Im thinking we just relentlessly pump CFCs into the atmosphere until we destroy the ozone layer? But I have no idea if that could actually keep it from reforming.

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