Sissyl wrote:
First things first. Mother Earth is a ball of rock. The Earth is not sentient. It is not going to retaliate against us. Lovelock was wrong, thunderously so.
WE determine what happens next. And no matter what we do, some tough bastards will find a way to survive it. Yes, this includes nuclear war. Let's not give ourselves too much credit here.
What remains a constant is the desire to see the world as ending, tainted, corrupted, dying, etc. We always have, quite simply. Extrapolate on any data you like, and you will reach some kind of oblivion, whether it's all of humanity employed to handle telephone switchboards, to huge numbers of super predators. Add in a bit of political ambition and you get hysteria, like the oceans rising 70 meters in 50 years, or any of a thousand lurid points.
Will it end? Certainly. But we can delay that. We can work toward or against survival, and a decent world to live in. Something isn't worthless because it ends. I think Asimov said it best: A lot of good things can happen in a billion years.
I politely disagree Sissyl-sama!