That ALL life will go extinct is hard to imagine, but many scientists do see a high chance that humanity is going extinct (due to climate collapse) or, at the very least a population collapse of >95% is certain to happen within 200 years.
Civilization collapse in 200 years is pretty plausible, which would go along with 95% of the population dying. For humans to go extinct would take better than 99.9% dying. 5,000 individuals would be a comfortable minimum viable population for humans to survive.
Yeah, if they were in one place. Not 5000 remaining survivors scattered all sround the world. Also, keep in mind that this would be an ongoing catastrophe, not something the world will just bounce back from once the humans are gone.
Well, the scientists are talking about 95%, which is 400 million people, and if people started dying out due to climate, you would see regions where people have a better time living. These would most likely be in the temperate bands, which are a narrow strip across South America and Africa, and a larger strip across North America and Eurasia. Those northern bands are thousands of kilometers long, and people have traveled those distances on foot before. Moreover, those 5000 people don’t have to be in one place, they need to join up in a few generations at worst. Also, climate collapse isn’t instant, as we are experiencing it right now, so those 5000 can start congregating before the collapse is complete. For reference, 0.1% of 8 billion is 1.6 million people. 5000 people is a third of a percent of that.
notsosure@sh.itjust.works 5 hours ago
That ALL life will go extinct is hard to imagine, but many scientists do see a high chance that humanity is going extinct (due to climate collapse) or, at the very least a population collapse of >95% is certain to happen within 200 years.
GreyEyedGhost@piefed.ca 3 hours ago
Civilization collapse in 200 years is pretty plausible, which would go along with 95% of the population dying. For humans to go extinct would take better than 99.9% dying. 5,000 individuals would be a comfortable minimum viable population for humans to survive.
Scubus@sh.itjust.works 2 hours ago
Yeah, if they were in one place. Not 5000 remaining survivors scattered all sround the world. Also, keep in mind that this would be an ongoing catastrophe, not something the world will just bounce back from once the humans are gone.
GreyEyedGhost@piefed.ca 2 hours ago
Well, the scientists are talking about 95%, which is 400 million people, and if people started dying out due to climate, you would see regions where people have a better time living. These would most likely be in the temperate bands, which are a narrow strip across South America and Africa, and a larger strip across North America and Eurasia. Those northern bands are thousands of kilometers long, and people have traveled those distances on foot before. Moreover, those 5000 people don’t have to be in one place, they need to join up in a few generations at worst. Also, climate collapse isn’t instant, as we are experiencing it right now, so those 5000 can start congregating before the collapse is complete. For reference, 0.1% of 8 billion is 1.6 million people. 5000 people is a third of a percent of that.
Killing every human is pretty hard.
ripcord@lemmy.world 3 hours ago
Yes, essentially zero chance of human extinction also
notsosure@sh.itjust.works 3 hours ago
You never know. 3-4C of temperature increase may offer some surprises.
ripcord@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
Dude we made it through that already