Brace yourself for a mind-boggling revelation – we could be at the mid-point of mammalian survival! Prepare to be perplexed and terrified as I unravel a future that is simply too hot for humans to handle. In a groundbreaking study, scientists have taken a previous prediction about the convergence of landmasses to form the supercontinent Pangea Ultima in about 250 million years, and used advanced climate models to envision what life on this supercontinent would be like. The results, unfortunately, leave much to be desired, especially for mammals who have successfully prevailed for a whopping 250 million years. A hotter sun, geological changes, and a staggering 50% increase in carbon dioxide levels from today’s levels would create a triple whammy of unsurvivable conditions, as explained by lead author Alexander Farnsworth, a climate scientist at the University of Bristol. Brace yourself for the details, which were published on Monday in Nature Geoscience and reported by the New York Times.
Hang on tight, because here comes the mind-bending part – the sun’s luminosity has been found to increase by approximately 1% every 100 million years, courtesy of the Jerusalem Post. This means that in another 250 million years, the sun will be a staggering 2.5% brighter and emit 2.5% more radiation compared to today. Such an increase would lead to a significant rise in Earth’s atmospheric temperature, triggering increased water evaporation from oceans and land. The result? A supercontinent where water vapor traps more heat, causing land temperatures to soar higher than those of oceans. Moreover, the movement of landmasses would result in countless volcanoes spewing large amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere for thousands of years, thus exacerbating the planet’s heat, as reported by the Times.
Picture a scorching scenario where temperatures range from a scalding 40 to 70 degrees Celsius, accompanied by high humidity. “The end result spells doom for mammals, with the supercontinent becoming a hostile environment with scarce food and water sources,” warns Farnsworth, speaking to the Post. Humans, along with a myriad of other species, would face extinction due to their inability to regulate body temperature through sweat and cooling mechanisms. The Post likens this outcome to “the first mass extinction of a magnitude comparable to the era of the dinosaurs.” Farnsworth, however, admits that some mammals might manage to survive in the northern and southern peripheries of the supercontinent, which will be located along the equator and constitute 8% to 16% of the landmass. In this case, mammals would lose their dominant position, ceding it to cold-blooded reptiles who are more adept at withstanding extreme heat, Farnsworth cautions the Times. (For more fascinating stories on mass extinction, click here.)
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