[Sys1]

Nowadays, it is commonly admited that dinosaurs have disappeared because of a major cataclysm called asteroid (even if we could also think about volcanoes).
Well, since i visited this site and others related to peak oil, i now remember having read many years ago a third theory, which is now almost forgotten :
This theory comes from a simple fact. There's still life today and many animals living now (like birds) were a little bit bigger a long time ago.
Let's get to the point i would like you to comment :
As you certainly know, dinosaurs were huge animals. For example, Brontosaur weight was 30 tons, Tyrannosaurus rex 10 tons (an elephant is "just" 5 tons).
I'm sure you get where i'm leading the thread...

Now try to figure how the world looked like when lands were full of those monsters... and let's emit a simple supposition : beside dinosaurs, there was no other race able to compete.
What would have happened in this case?
Lack of plants.

And now? The story repeats again:
Plants became oil. Dinosaurs became humans.

[Ludi]

There have been various periods of megafauna (sorry, not remembering my geologic periods very well right now - the Oligocene was another? Probably getting that wrong, anyway, the Age of Giant Mammals, when there were herbivorous mammals the size of dinosaurs). They died out due to changing climate. I don't know if humans fall into the "megafauna" category. I don't think we'll die out as a species any time soon, we're pretty adaptable l'il guys.

[Kaminyu]

Is it possible that dinosaurs didn't really die off, but just devolved into what we have today?

[julianj]

The dinosaurs had small brains,

but at least what they didn't do, was drop the asteroid on their own effing heads!!!

Only humans could do something like that.

(actually, OK I retract the last comment, before people start whacking me with yeast in a petri dish or those reindeer on that island)

[PenultimateManStanding]

Gary Larson nailed the real reason the dinosaurs went belly-up. He showed a bunch of delinquent dinos smoking cigarettes.

[Rickenbacker]

ok think about this

scarcity of a shared important resource will inevitably lead (and has already led) to WAR

End of pesticides, insecticides, fertilizers, plastic and fuel for distribution brings with it FAMINE

End of pharmaceuticals industry including vaccines and antibiotics, along with the diseases associated with stavation and squalor bring PESTILENCE

And obviously, trotting along on his little horse lending a hand to all three is DEATH

This is just me talking bs but still, if I was superstitious Id be reading my 'end of the world' prophecy crap. Nostradamus said 'the war to end all wars will begin in the middle east'

[Raxozanne]

I'm not sure if we are going the way of the dinosaurs but some of us are nearly as stupid.

My mother saw an advert for the new Matt Simmons book and seemed interested so I decided to try explaining the urgency of PO to her again. She replied with 'Im too old'. OK ok so she is too old to bother about peak oil right, but is she too old to starve to death? I don't think so. Plus she has spent the last few days researching Phantom of the Opera because there is a 2 second visual fault in the DVD that doesn't make it perfect and up to her standards. Oh boy are we in for a ride in the future with people like this!

I told her that she would make a crap Jedi, she would probably prioritise watching the latest episode of Will and Grace over saving Corescent.

[RIPSmithianEconomics]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Kaminyu', 'I')s it possible that dinosaurs didn't really die off, but just devolved into what we have today?

[RIPSmithianEconomics]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Sys1', 'A')s you certainly know, dinosaurs were huge animals. For example, Brontosaur weight was 30 tons, Tyrannosaurus rex 10 tons (an elephant is "just" 5 tons).
I'm sure you get where i'm leading the thread...

Now try to figure how the world looked like when lands were full of those monsters... and let's emit a simple supposition : beside dinosaurs, there was no other race able to compete.
What would have happened in this case?
Lack of plants.

[jimmyz]

if we were we would die at 20... net lost after that in the GPD

[k_semler]

If humans never manage to get off of this lonely rock, we will of course become an extinct species. In about 4 billion years when the sun evolves into a red giant, the earth will actually be inside the sun. Of course, way before that, the earth will become to inhospitible to large animal life, and then it will heat up even more and start killing off even the smaller animals. Later, as precipitation becomes even more rare, plant life will become a tinder box just awaiting a match. All it would take is one lightning storm with a somewhat powerful wind to ignite a massive fire storm that torches a whole contident. Later, as the earth heats up even more, plankton will die off, and all life dependent upon plankton for a food source, (whether direct or indirect) will become extinct. Later still, the oceans will boil off, and forever eliminate all life from earth. After that, the atmosphere will heat up to the point where it will be hot enough to melt lead, (Venus anybody?). As a final blow, the sun will consume the Earth in a last grand show.

So yes, eventually all life on Earth will become extinct as the sun goes through its life cycle. The good news about it is, Mars may be hospitable to plant and simple animal life for a few hundred million years before the sun is too close to it for it to sustain life also. Then the sun will spend all its fissionable materials, and finally burn out, leaving the solar system cold, dark, and lifeless. As it was in the beginning, so shall it be in the end. The nine planets will orbit around a dead star for the rest of eternity.

[PenultimateManStanding]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('RIPSmithianEconomics', '
')In addition, I doubt they'd have been kicking around for millions of years on end if they were somehow flawed in being big. .

[k_semler]

The lowly cockroach will be the inheriters of the Earth. It has been hypothysised that even with a full scale nuclear deployment off all weapons on earth, the radioation would be enough to kill all life on Earth, except the cockroach. After we nuke ourselves, the cockroach will rise among the metal giants to dominate the Earth. I for one, welcome our radiation hardened insect overlords.

[PenultimateManStanding]

Sorry k_sem, but the cockroaches won't survive peak oil either, at least not in temperate to cold climes, They'll die out in New York for instance if the buildings ever stop getting heated. No, they'll have to stick to the tropics where they came from. Imagine billions of ants though, 3 feet long, massing in military formation to attack any mammal that moves! With cunning and intelligence.

[accept_death]

My friend offered up this explanation of the future, in response to concern over nuclear holocaust,

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'F')all out! Big deal. It's just the next step in evolution. Super giant, atmoic Ants will take over. They'll start out as a monarchy with a Queen and all, but in time the proletariat wil get restless. Free thinking ants will call for a move to democracy, a schism will occurr. New colonies or "ant farms" will sprout up...that is once the ants wipe out the not so super nor atmoic cockaroaches that have survived the nuclear holocaust. The ants will war. They'll grow more technologically advanced until they one day create a giant magnifying glass that can scorch the entire Earth.

[PenultimateManStanding]

Sounds plausible to me! The day will come though when Peak Sugar wipes them out, too.