Busta Carmichael
Moderator
ENERGY
Satellites could beam solar power energy down from orbit.
Even today, solar power is getting more competitive in the market with fossil fuels as photovoltaic technology improves. But other alternatives to oil may see their day.
Nuclear may yet see a renaissance, for example, as there are several technologies in the works to make nuclear plants safer and deal with the nagging problem of radioactive waste.
Meanwhile there has been progress, if slow, towards working fusion reactors that produce tremendous amounts of energy (think: the sun) without the dangerous levels of radiation. And some people predict that we'll send a set of solar- satellites into space that will beam solar energy down from orbit. The day may actually come when humans wean themselves from fossil fuels.
On the flip side, we might not be able to get the necessary technologies up and running fast enough. "There is a possibility that we are in an energy and resource over-shoot situation, and will not be able to adjust in time to avert a crash," Hiemstra said, though that's less likely in his opinion.
In that case, our 150-year-olds may be looking at life that's a lot like it was 150 years in the past where energy-intensive machines like cars and planes were reserved only for the very wealthy.
CITIES
If humans continue to spew CO2 into the atmosphere at the same rate, global temperatures will rise anywhere from 3 degrees Fahrenheit to nearly 11 degrees in the next century. Sea levels are predicted to rise between two to six feet, said Gavin Schmidt, a climatologist and Deputy Chief of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies. "To get a sense of what this would mean in daily life you might want to look at Venice -- increasing incidences of flooding at high tide and during storms and slow adaptation to the new reality."
Our 150-year-old might be telling her great grandchildren about the good ole days in the legendary city of New Orleans, which by then will be underwater. Gone would be Miami Beach and a big piece of the Netherlands and Bangladesh. China's current boom towns of Guangdong and Shenzhen might look like those villages submerged under the reservoir created by the Three Gorges Dam.
Biodiversity
Human activity has meant both habitat loss and direct death for thousands of species. As a result, one of the biggest mass extinction events since the Cretaceous Period 65 million years ago looms on Earth's horizon. Anthony Barnosky, a palaeobiologist at the University of California, Berkeley, predicts that in 300 years time, 75 percent of all mammal species will have disappeared from this planet.
Anyone living 150 from now may only know big animals such as the apes, chimpanzees, elephants, lions and tigers from books (or whatever medium is current then).
20 Percent of Plant Species Face Extinction
At the same time, invasive species will fill niches, and our great-grandchildren won't know anything different. "Look at Hawaii," said Quentin Wheeler, taxonomist and professor at the School of Sustainability at Arizona State University. "All those flowers that the tourists love are mostly invasive species. The local flora was decimated."
Instead of elephants, we may have boa constrictors and coyotes.
Satellites could beam solar power energy down from orbit.
Even today, solar power is getting more competitive in the market with fossil fuels as photovoltaic technology improves. But other alternatives to oil may see their day.
Nuclear may yet see a renaissance, for example, as there are several technologies in the works to make nuclear plants safer and deal with the nagging problem of radioactive waste.
Meanwhile there has been progress, if slow, towards working fusion reactors that produce tremendous amounts of energy (think: the sun) without the dangerous levels of radiation. And some people predict that we'll send a set of solar- satellites into space that will beam solar energy down from orbit. The day may actually come when humans wean themselves from fossil fuels.
On the flip side, we might not be able to get the necessary technologies up and running fast enough. "There is a possibility that we are in an energy and resource over-shoot situation, and will not be able to adjust in time to avert a crash," Hiemstra said, though that's less likely in his opinion.
In that case, our 150-year-olds may be looking at life that's a lot like it was 150 years in the past where energy-intensive machines like cars and planes were reserved only for the very wealthy.
CITIES
If humans continue to spew CO2 into the atmosphere at the same rate, global temperatures will rise anywhere from 3 degrees Fahrenheit to nearly 11 degrees in the next century. Sea levels are predicted to rise between two to six feet, said Gavin Schmidt, a climatologist and Deputy Chief of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies. "To get a sense of what this would mean in daily life you might want to look at Venice -- increasing incidences of flooding at high tide and during storms and slow adaptation to the new reality."
Our 150-year-old might be telling her great grandchildren about the good ole days in the legendary city of New Orleans, which by then will be underwater. Gone would be Miami Beach and a big piece of the Netherlands and Bangladesh. China's current boom towns of Guangdong and Shenzhen might look like those villages submerged under the reservoir created by the Three Gorges Dam.
Biodiversity
Human activity has meant both habitat loss and direct death for thousands of species. As a result, one of the biggest mass extinction events since the Cretaceous Period 65 million years ago looms on Earth's horizon. Anthony Barnosky, a palaeobiologist at the University of California, Berkeley, predicts that in 300 years time, 75 percent of all mammal species will have disappeared from this planet.
Anyone living 150 from now may only know big animals such as the apes, chimpanzees, elephants, lions and tigers from books (or whatever medium is current then).
20 Percent of Plant Species Face Extinction
At the same time, invasive species will fill niches, and our great-grandchildren won't know anything different. "Look at Hawaii," said Quentin Wheeler, taxonomist and professor at the School of Sustainability at Arizona State University. "All those flowers that the tourists love are mostly invasive species. The local flora was decimated."
Instead of elephants, we may have boa constrictors and coyotes.
