# Very disturbing read Earth 'will expire by 2050' **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 26, 2014, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-disturbing-read-earth-will-expire-by-2050/679783 "2014-01-26T22:04:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![sweat209](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@sweat209](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweat209)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2014, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-disturbing-read-earth-will-expire-by-2050/679783/1 "2014-01-26T22:04:51Z")
I came across some disturbing news articles.What is your thought? What is your views on it , does the news article seem faulty or way off? More like 100 or 200 years from now Earth will expire ? I know gold and siver is hard to come by now.Also copper and metal. Not to say Wood,fish and water hard to come by now. > [@](#): > > How many natural resources would we need if the entire world’s population consumed them like Americans do? More than we have Land problem earth too small [http://www.fastcoexist.com/1680379/what-would-happen-if-the-entire-world-lived-like-americans](http://www.fastcoexist.com/1680379/what-would-happen-if-the-entire-world-lived-like-americans) > [@](#): > > The world has now reached ‘earth overshoot day’, the point in the year that humans have exhausted supplies such land, trees and fish > We have also outstripped the planet’s annual capacity to absorb waste products including carbon dioxide, the Global Footprint Network says > **[We've used up all the resources the Earth can provide for the year and are...](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2397292/Weve-used-resources-Earth-provide-year-overdraft-campaigners-warn.html)** > > Known as 'earth overshoot day', today is the point in the year that humans have exhausted supplies such land, trees and fish, says the Global Footprint Network. > [@](#): > > Our planet is running out of room and resources. Modern man has plundered so much, a damning report claims this week, that outer space will have to be colonised > [@](#): > > Earth’s population will be forced to colonise two planets within 50 years if natural resources continue to be exploited at the current rate, according to a report out this week. > **[Earth 'will expire by 2050'](https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2002/jul/07/research.waste)** > > Our planet is running out of room and resources. Modern man has plundered so much, a damning report claims this week, that outer space will have to be colonised. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2014, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-disturbing-read-earth-will-expire-by-2050/679783/2 "2014-01-26T22:17:59Z")
I would advise you to stop reading sites trying to sell you something through the use of alarming and patently false information. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2014, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-disturbing-read-earth-will-expire-by-2050/679783/3 "2014-01-26T22:22:31Z")
The Earth could not give less of a rip as to exactly what kind of mites infest its surface, nor what they do with said surface. It is no more likely to expire than the sun. We, however, might have some problems, but the Earth? It’ll be here when the sun goes cold. Or blows up. Either way, a long time. ---
**Author:** ![randompattern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7993a0/32.png) [@randompattern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randompattern)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2014, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-disturbing-read-earth-will-expire-by-2050/679783/4 "2014-01-26T22:29:16Z")
Is the Earth running out of room and resources or are there to many people living on it? The size of the Earth hasn’t changed. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2014, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-disturbing-read-earth-will-expire-by-2050/679783/5 "2014-01-26T22:48:02Z")
> [@sweat209](#): > > I came across some disturbing news articles.What is your thought? What is your views on it , does the news article seem faulty or way off? More like 100 or 200 years from now Earth will expire ? > > I know gold and siver is hard to come by now.Also copper and metal… Almost all the gold, silver, & copper that was ever mined is still on the planet. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2014, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-disturbing-read-earth-will-expire-by-2050/679783/6 "2014-01-26T22:49:33Z")
Since the OP is asking for opinions, let’s move this to IMHO. Colibri General Questions Moderator ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2014, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-disturbing-read-earth-will-expire-by-2050/679783/7 "2014-01-26T22:57:47Z")
> [@randompattern](#): > > Is the Earth running out of room and resources or are there to many people living on it? The size of the Earth hasn’t changed. [Everyone on Earth today would fit into Los Angeles.](http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/10/111031-population-7-billion-earth-world-un-seven/). I think if people lived at the density of New York they’d fit in Texas. We do have to conserve more, but let’s not panic quite yet about room. ---
**Author:** ![TimeWinder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@TimeWinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimeWinder)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2014, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-disturbing-read-earth-will-expire-by-2050/679783/8 "2014-01-26T23:02:31Z")
I’d heard that the entire Ghost Earth full of Cannibal Humans was about to crash into Northern Europe! ---
**Author:** ![randompattern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7993a0/32.png) [@randompattern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randompattern)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2014, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-disturbing-read-earth-will-expire-by-2050/679783/9 "2014-01-26T23:08:05Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > [Everyone on Earth today would fit into Los Angeles.](http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/10/111031-population-7-billion-earth-world-un-seven/). I think if people lived at the density of New York they’d fit in Texas. > > We do have to conserve more, but let’s not panic quite yet about room. It’s not about the space an actual human body takes up, we need to consider all the stuff we need that takes up room such as food crops,etc. Then there’s the waste produced from 7 billion people. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2014, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-disturbing-read-earth-will-expire-by-2050/679783/10 "2014-01-26T23:12:54Z")
Human population is set to stabilize at about 9-10 billion this century. If anything it may start going down (until we learn how immortality works, which I’m assuming wouldn’t be long after the 2050s). We do not have enough natural resources to let everyone live like an American. The stat that 5% of us use 25% of the world’s resources would imply we need a half a dozen earths to support 9-10 billion people by US standards. So one of several things can and will happen. 1. We will lower our standards of living 2. We will find ways around our limited natural resources either by finding more of the limited ones (more recycling, better mining) or by discovering alternatives that are not as finite. I do not think there will be mass death or starvation though. It requires very few resources to keep humans alive. Basic food and public health is about all it takes. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2014, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-disturbing-read-earth-will-expire-by-2050/679783/11 "2014-01-26T23:26:17Z")
> [@randompattern](#): > > It’s not about the space an actual human body takes up, we need to consider all the stuff we need that takes up room such as food crops,etc. Then there’s the waste produced from 7 billion people. If everybody lived in more condensed spaces, there would be more space for those things, too. ---
**Author:** ![randompattern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7993a0/32.png) [@randompattern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randompattern)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2014, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-disturbing-read-earth-will-expire-by-2050/679783/12 "2014-01-26T23:52:51Z")
> [@garygnu](#): > > If everybody lived in more condensed spaces, there would be more space for those things, too. The commute to work would be a bitch. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![SeldomSeen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ba0ec/32.png) [@SeldomSeen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeldomSeen)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2014, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-disturbing-read-earth-will-expire-by-2050/679783/13 "2014-01-27T00:03:27Z")
What is my thought? This: **Vox Clamantis in Deserto** > [@](#): > > The earth is not a mechanism but an organism, a being with its own life and its own reasons, where the support and sustenance of the human animal is incidental. If man in his newfound power and vanity persists in the attempt to remake the planet in his own image, he will succeed only in destroying himself — not the planet. The earth will survive our most ingenious folly. > “Shadows from the Big Woods”, p. 225 ---
**Author:** ![sweat209](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@sweat209](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweat209)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2014, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-disturbing-read-earth-will-expire-by-2050/679783/14 "2014-01-27T02:20:18Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > The Earth could not give less of a rip as to exactly what kind of mites infest its surface, nor what they do with said surface. It is no more likely to expire than the sun. We, however, might have some problems, but the Earth? It’ll be here when the sun goes cold. Or blows up. Either way, a long time. The person who wrote the news article use the term Earth will expire by 2050. What they are saying we are runing out of land ,wood ,fish and other natural resources may be like gold ,siver ,copper and metal. ---
**Author:** ![Driver8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5a626/32.png) [@Driver8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Driver8)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2014, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-disturbing-read-earth-will-expire-by-2050/679783/15 "2014-01-27T02:54:03Z")
The Earth will expire by 2050? I’m picturing a tiny “17 FEB 2050” printed on some rock somewhere. I imagine come 18 February 2050 I’ll just have to give it a sniff before using. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2014, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-disturbing-read-earth-will-expire-by-2050/679783/16 "2014-01-27T03:01:35Z")
> [@sweat209](#): > > The person who wrote the news article use the term Earth will expire by 2050. What they are saying we are runing out of land ,wood ,fish and other natural resources may be like gold ,siver ,copper and metal. The Earth obviously is not going to run out of land, unless it becomes Waterworld, which, by the way, it won’t. The Earth isn’t running out of wood and never will. World forest coverage is declining but very, very slowly, and almost all the decline is in South America. Even if nothing were done about it - and things ARE being done about it - we wouldn’t run out of forest by 3050, much less 2050. Wood conservation is very easy, compared to other forms of conservation, and has been wildly successful anywhere that any government has taken it even halfway seriously: [http://www.ecotippingpoints.org/our-stories/indepth/japan-community-forest-management-silviculture.html](http://www.ecotippingpoints.org/our-stories/indepth/japan-community-forest-management-silviculture.html) Fish, now that’s a serious problem that needs to be addressed. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2014, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-disturbing-read-earth-will-expire-by-2050/679783/17 "2014-01-27T03:07:10Z")
Some say the world will end in fire, some say in ice. The human race may make some stupid decisions that make it more difficult for the world to support several billion of us for awhile, but it’ll be self-correcting after awhile: human population will drop, the environment will recover somewhat, etc. The Earth has survived previous environmental cataclysms (like the one that wiped out the dinosaurs), and will survive us too. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2014, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-disturbing-read-earth-will-expire-by-2050/679783/18 "2014-01-27T03:08:52Z")
On one hand, if I’m even still alive I’ll be in my 90s. I could very will be dead by then, so fuck it – party and use those resources up now! On the other hand, I plan to be an immortal, so that could throw me a curve ball. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2014, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-disturbing-read-earth-will-expire-by-2050/679783/19 "2014-01-27T03:14:00Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > We do not have enough natural resources to let everyone live like an American. The stat that 5% of us use 25% of the world’s resources would imply we need a half a dozen earths to support 9-10 billion people by US standards. > > So one of several things can and will happen. > > 1. We will lower our standards of living > 2. We will find ways around our limited natural resources either by finding more of the limited ones (more recycling, better mining) or by discovering alternatives that are not as finite. And/or 3 (or possibly 2a): Have a standard of living that is roughly _as good_ as that of Americans, but less _wasteful_. Less disposable goods, more durable goods, that sort of thing; part of our problem is that our consumer-based economy pretty much _depends_ on an awful lot of wasted motion to stay healthy. It means that everything is _made_ to wear out fast because otherwise people won’t buy new ones. ---
**Author:** ![Esox\_Lucius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/848f3c/32.png) [@Esox\_Lucius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esox_Lucius)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2014, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-disturbing-read-earth-will-expire-by-2050/679783/20 "2014-01-27T05:09:39Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > The Earth isn’t running out of wood and never will. The OP should take a drive through the Canadian Shield. The whole length of it. By Day 3, he’ll be wishing there was a shortage of trees. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-disturbing-read-earth-will-expire-by-2050/679783.md?page=2)