What will happen to the earth if global warming raises surface temperature to 200 degrees celsius?

Question

I am writing a thesis titled "The Human Seed," focusing on how humanity will survive in the future given the premise that the surface of the earth is 200 degrees celsius

I have five questions:

1. What will happen to the earth if global warming raises surface temperature to 200 degrees celsius?

2. How will humanity survive if the Earth's surface temperature rose to 200 degrees celsius?

3. How can we form one global nation to harness science and fight global warming?

4. If all of humanity is gone, what knowledge must we send into the future to resurrect us?

5. If we have the Human Seed, how will we send it into the future?

Answer 1

We will all turn into lava people.

Answer 2

The predicted temp rise is ~100th of what you are talking about

Answer 3

As others have said, the current GW theory doesn't come close to this even as a worse case scenario.

I suppose that it is possible however to imagine such a scenario although it is really far-fetched - science fiction but very heavy on the fiction!!

GW gets as bad as it can (10-15 degrees) but perhaps our models are not so reliable for forecasting the effects at this extreme so assume that there was an unforseen reinforcing mechanism causing GW to go haywire...

...or an additional catastrophic event just as GW peaked, e.g.:

a comet strike that vapourises much of the oceans and opens a huge hole through to the mantle causing massive heat loss from the core or;

desertification and drought becomes a runaway effect or;

a chlorophyll-eating bacterial or fungal plague that destroys what is left of plant life on the planet

etc.

The last two would mean no plant life = nothing converting CO2 to O2 = massive build up of CO2 but this probably needs massive vulcanism perhaps as a result of increased tectonic activity from lack of weight of ice (ice caps having melted).

Whatever it is, I think we can see that there would have had to have been catastrophic changes to the biosphere - basically most life as we know it would be dead even before the planet reached 200 degrees (possible exception of heat-loving bacteria).

At 200 degrees, there would obviously be no liquid water - either bound up chemically somewhere or, more likely, in the atmosphere (possibly bound up with high CO2 as carbonic acid or some such).

At this point, the Earth would resemble Venus: Impenetrable cloud, highly acidic atmosphere with no free O2, probably extreme storms (lots of energy kicking around), probable very high vulcanism and/or massive lava outflows hence the surface would be very unstable.

No life - well, as we understand life.

You say not to answer the rest of the questions but perhaps you shouldn't have given them to us if you didn't want answers! I'll be brief with the others, though.

2. Humanity wouldn't survive, not a chance - lack of water alone would be the kicker (not just for drinking but also for food production etc). If this - whatever - happened far enough in the future for humanity to have developed sufficient technologies to live on a 200 degree planet, then they would be more than capable of moving to a more hospitable world (e.g. Mars) and terraforming it or the technology would be sufficient to stop/reverse the temperature gain on Earth such that it wouldn't be 200 degrees...

3 Actually doesnt have anything to do with your SF scenario but we are already on the way to doing so... (UN and other global institutions) but knowing us humans, this is still 2,3,400-years away.

4 We shouldn't. Any species stupid enough to burn itself up should not be resurrected

5 Don't

Answer 4

There have been a couple of good sci-fi movies about that. The short answer is if the surface temperature went up to 200 degrees we'd all die.

Concerning your other global warming questions, taking a scientific approach, I researched several scientific databases. After reading the NASA data where they talk about how the surface temperature of all nine planets in the solar system is rising in direct relationship to their distance from the sun (except Jupiter which is also warming from it's own internal heat), and how they measured that - I don't worry about global warming anymore.

I can't change the heat output of the sun nor the solar cycles, nor can I change the surface temperatures of the other planets. These things are simply beyond my power to even influence.

Answer 5

Sort of silly being that we would all be dead.

Answer 6

Earth can survive extreme temperatures, but life on earth is in a balance and your 200 C Earth is a dead planet-at least as we know it. Some life forms may continue but the radiation from the sun kills most reproductive means. This is a question like making mercury a life sustainable planet in 200 years?

Answer 7

A 200 C raise in mean global temperature would have nothing to do with global warming.  The most dire predictions only raise the temperature by a few degrees C.  Humans are the most adaptable and hardy species on the planet - not the least.

Here is a link to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Reports to help you understand what the predictions are and what scenarios they are made under, what the impacts are likely to be, and what the consequences may be.

Maybe look at a 2-7 degree C rise and focus on questions 1 - 2.   We resolve problems through politics - no country is going to give up sovereignty to reach a solution.  Scientist talk to each other globally and pass ideas that get refined.  The information is then passed to the politicians to act on. We also pass information to future generations through publishing and refining scientific hypothesis.  #4 is way out there - I can't venture a decent guess.  Maybe space travel and colonizing other planets?  # 5 - the same way we always have - DNA and reproduction.

If this is a paper for class, I'd focus on numbers 1 and 2 (with a 2 degree Celsius rise instead of 200).  You could also do a paper on # 3 alone (the interaction between the science of global warming and political solutions: implications.)

http://www.ipcc.ch/

Answer 8

I have heard of many alarmists statements, but not as extreme as the one you have said.

Answer 9

May I suggest you actually try to get some sort of life.

Your question is so insane that it defies any reason.

And I agree completely with the comment made about this one being the most 'extreme'!

YAAFI!!!(figure it out)

Answer 10

1. The sea's will literally boil since the boiling point of at least fresh water is only 100 degrees Celsius.  But I don't think that humans can survive much past 50 degrees.

2.  Underground or underwater environments.  More likely underground with its own oxygen and water recycling, and a geothermal power source.  Or the time they should blast off of the Earth and find a new planet.

3. Theoretically that is what the G8 summit is about, but a global nation doesn't work, as found out by the first George Bush, before W, found out the hard way when he tried to introduce his world order.  Global cooperation however can work.

4.  A space probe, or a series of space probes that can dictate our history, who we are, I mean were, our history, our culture, everything we were before we were annihilated by ourselves or by others, natural or others.  And maybe not a space probe, something that can either be put into orbit or in a cave to be excavated by either neo-human or extraterrestrial archeologists.

5.  Space probe once again.  Calculate it so it can return to Earth in say 1 million years when the Earth has a chance to recover.