The simulation presented by the researchers doesn’t look good: a colored wave rolls across the world map over the course of a year, the colors represent the temperatures. A dark blue represents sub-zero temperatures, up to minus 16 degrees Celsius. So actually only a small area at the south pole is colored. The very narrow temperate zones are also only found in the extreme south and north; light green to light yellow indicate temperatures between 16 and 24 degrees. But the rest of the planet is primarily covered in a deep red: it has an average temperature of up to 48 degrees Celsius.
This is the visualization of data that a supercomputer spewed out on behalf of a team of researchers led by geographer Alexander Farnsworth from the British University of Bristol looks like. In the current issue of the specialist magazine Nature Geoscience you can read what that would mean for life on earth: All mammals living on land will probably die out, and with them people.
“It looks as if life will be a bit tough in the future,” comments rather dryly geologist Hannah Davies from the German Geo-Research Center GFZ in Potsdam, who was not involved in the current study, in an additional article Nature. In short: “a bit depressing”.
There will be a lack of water and food for mammals. Other forms of life are also in distress
It may be a small consolation that this presumably inescapable fate of the Earth will only occur in 250 million years. On the other hand, previous estimates had already promised humans a few hundred million years more.
The reason for the worsened forecast can also be seen on the map now presented. It shows the future supercontinent Pangea Ultima. Geologists have long expected that plate tectonic forces will continue to work and first create an Afro-Eurasian continent, which will then collide with the two Americas and form a single contiguous continent.
The image shows the warmest monthly average temperature on the supercontinent Pangea Ultima as it might look in about 250 million years.
(Photo: University of Bristol)
These processes will have effects that go far beyond current anthropogenic climate change. The geological processes are accompanied by strong volcanic activity, which leads to massive carbon dioxide emissions. Cosmologists expect that solar radiation will also increase by 2.5 percent by this point. Because of the continent’s extremely dry interior regions, overall humidity in the air is also likely to decrease.
The result is a hostile environment in which there is a lack of water and food for mammals, says study author Alexander Farnsworth in a statement. “Humans, as well as other species, will disappear because they will no longer be able to survive the heat by sweating.” What’s more: “It could also affect the plant world and other life forms.” The scientist believes it is unlikely that people will be able to adapt to the new conditions. “I think it would make more sense if we left the planet, assuming we can find habitable places elsewhere.”