RE: Will the sun explode?
August 30, 2018 at 10:38 pm
(This post was last modified: August 30, 2018 at 10:42 pm by Anomalocaris.)
(August 30, 2018 at 9:45 pm)AFTT47 Wrote: It should be noted that the sun's output will gradually increase over the next 5 billion or so years. Earth will remain habitable for only another billion years at most before it is too hot - if nothing is done. In theory, a technique called star lifting could remove much of the helium ash from the sun, lowering its mass and luminosity and greatly extending its life.
The estimate I saw say earth will remain habitable to complex animals for much less than that. Basically in 200 million years, a threshold will be crossed where, in order to further reduce green house effect to keep up with increasing output of the sun, so much CO2 has to be removed that plant photo synthesis will become increasingly difficult.
Basically we are screwed either way. If we keep CO2 in the atmosphere, then in 200 million years the average global temperature will go up 15 degrees, and humans will literally cook without artificial air conditioning because over most of the planet surface the wet bulb temperature will exceed the human body temperature, leaving humans unable to cool off by fanning or sweating. If we reduce CO2 to levels that will keep large part of planet survivable in terms of temperature, planets will stop being able to carry on with photosynthesis.
