#Earth thousands of years later series#

Not all of Earth’s changes are caused by humans, but humans have worsened some of them. Sea level rise means even less land, and rising temperatures will send many species migrating to better climates. As the human population grows, other species have less space to roam. More than 800 plant and animal species have become extinct because of human activities over that period. The number of humans has increased from around 500 million people to over 7.5 billion today. Looking back at the past 500 years, the living part of the Earth, called the biosphere, has changed dramatically.

A warming planet can also contribute to extreme weather like heat waves, storms and droughts that can change the land. These changes could lead to a very different planet in 500 years, depending in large part on how willing humans are to change their ways. Melting ice sheets raise the oceans, causing coastal areas to flood. The result of too much carbon dioxide is that temperatures rise, and that can lead to dangerously hot summer days and melting ice in Greenland and Antarctica. That can be useful – until we get too much. Normally, greenhouse gases trap heat from the Sun the way the glass of a greenhouse does, keeping Earth warmer than it would be otherwise. How humans are contributing to global warming. These changes happen over tens of thousands of years, and they have been responsible for ice ages.įive hundred years isn’t very long in terms of geology. It wobbles, the angle of its tilt changes and even its orbit changes to bring the Earth closer to or farther from the Sun.

We do know that two main types of processes change our planet: One involves natural cycles, like the way the planet rotates and moves around the Sun, and the other is caused by life forms, especially humans. Imagine Christopher Columbus in 1492 trying to predict the Americas of today! But predicting what the Earth will be like 500 years from now is a difficult task because there are many factors at play. Scientists can make some pretty accurate forecasts about the future. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to will the Earth be like in 500 years? - Lotte, Brookline, Massachusetts

#Earth thousands of years later series#

Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages.