Scientists fear that our planet will repeat the tragic fate of its celestial neighbor. Until recently, it was considered: on Venus - the second planet from the Sun, shrouded in a dense layer of clouds - is now as it was on Earth billions of years ago
When we didn't even have life. Like, Venus is still ahead - in the distant, distant future. And in which case the prettier neighbor will shelter humanity if the home planet deteriorates.
However, a much darker hypothesis is now popular. The fact that the best times for Venus have already passed, the planet died irrevocably. And she has no future.
Another thing is worse: it seems that the same thing awaits us on Earth - scorching heat of almost 450 degrees Celsius, monstrous pressure - a hundred times higher than that of the earth, stuffiness - almost 95 percent of carbon dioxide - and rains of sulfuric acid. In short, a real hell. And it is organized, as you might guess, by global warming, which is especially easy to believe in reality this summer - it's very hot.
- A few more years of such an anomaly - and things can take a bad turn, - are now frightening many climatologists. - For example, the permafrost will begin to melt. Or an overheated ocean evaporate. And emit billions of tons of greenhouse gases. Global warming from this will become quite catastrophic - an avalanche. And then Venus is just a stone's throw away.
THE END OF THE BEST RESORT IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM
The heat wave was not the only thing that supported the alarmists-climatologists. But also the specialists of the European Space Agency (ESA). Last year, they announced a sensational discovery: they say, once Venus was not just a twin sister of the Earth, but a heavenly place. With a tropical climate. With warm salty oceans. With fresh, deep rivers. And there was enough oxygen. In a word, then - several hundred million years ago - the beaches of Venus were the best in the solar system.
If anyone has enjoyed the Venusian resorts, he has long since dissolved in the local acid. But the data obtained with the Venus Express probe, which has been in orbit of our neighbor for several years, fully admits that conditions on the planet of storms were once even more favorable for the emergence of life than on Earth.
Alas, the ocean on Venus seems to have really evaporated. And now the surface of the planet is its dry bottom, over which three continents rise.
In the atmosphere of the second planet from the Sun, Venus Express discovered, among other things, traces of "heavy" water. There is such a thing on Earth. In a certain proportion to ordinary water. Knowing it, experts determined: in the "paradise" era, the Venusian ocean could cover the entire planet with a layer of water 100 meters thick.
What killed the best resort in the solar system? Can a similar nightmare really repeat itself on Earth? The Japanese probe Akatsuki ("Dawn"), which will work in tandem with Venus Express for several years, will help answer these questions.
“When we can explain what is happening on Venus, we will better understand our planet,” said Takeshi Imamura from the Japanese space agency JAXA. 10 THOUSAND YEARS WITHOUT HUMANS - AND THE CLIMATE WILL IMPROVE
University of Washington professor Peter Ward scares: there really is a merciless mechanism on Earth that can turn it into Venus. Moreover, our planet has been on this "hellish" edge at least five times over the past 500 million years. Life then practically ceased to exist. Only the so-called Great Extinction, which happened 251 million years ago, destroyed more than 90 percent of all inhabitants in the ocean and more than 70 percent on land. Including plants.
“The mass death of organisms occurred against the backdrop of global warming,” explains Ward. - The concentration of greenhouse gases - especially carbon dioxide - has been growing unreasonably. And the oxygen content dropped rapidly - both in the atmosphere and in the ocean.
A sharp rise in temperature - more than 10 degrees - prevented the ocean from assimilating oxygen. And he created favorable conditions for the reproduction of anaerobic bacteria - those that do not need oxygen. They produced huge amounts of poisonous hydrogen sulfide. Which starved the inhabitants of the seas and land, giving rise to acid.
Today, the concentration of carbon dioxide is three times less than during periods of mass extinctions of living things. But it is constantly growing. What humanity is actively contributing to. And if we “gas” at the current pace, then by the end of the century the concentration of only carbon dioxide will become critical - the one that will start destructive processes.
We are at real risk of becoming victims of the sixth mass extinction.
And according to the report prepared by Carl Gustav Lundin, the head of the international program for the protection of marine resources, the process has already begun. According to the researcher, the acidity of sea waters has long reached the limit. And according to his forecasts, marine life will begin to die en masse by 2050. And half of the mangrove area has already been lost. And all because of global warming.
- It takes at least 10 thousand "calm" years to restore the natural balance - without anthropogenic impact, - says Karl.
- It is possible that humanity has already passed the "point of no return". And the pollution of the biosphere caused by us is such that it inevitably leads to our death, - fears the famous ecologist Professor Alexey Yablokov.
SOMETHING SAVED US
Fortunately, the mechanism of not only the destruction of life, but also its revival works on Earth - we exist after all the troubles. The mechanism is still mysterious. But it seems that it is he who saves - cools the planet and somewhere "hides" excess carbon. As a result, the Earth does not slide into the abyss in which her sister once perished. Although it has every chance. The total amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases on Venus and Earth is approximately the same. Only here they are still connected in water and in sedimentary rocks.
According to one hypothesis, volcanoes also pushed Venus to its death. But on Earth, as it was recently found out, they are capable of mischief no less.
For example, Mount St. Helena in Washington state (an active volcano) threatens to erupt in a monstrous eruption. And grow to a huge size. Like Venus. This is the conclusion reached by Graham Hill of the New Zealand Institute for Terrestrial and Nuclear Research. Having probed Saint Helena, the researcher discovered: under it there are huge cavities of molten rock, which stretch for tens of kilometers. If they suddenly work at once, then a monstrous vent with a diameter of several kilometers will appear. And an eruption of unprecedented power will burst …
BTW It
will not be boring
A surprising global warming surprise was discovered by a team of researchers led by Maya Repo of the Finnish University of Kuopio: nitrous oxide, known as laughing gas, oozes from the swampy regions of the Russian Arctic. Its powerful sources are peat circles. Each of their square meters emits 1.2 grams per season.
Squares with "funny" circles occupy more than 20 percent of the territory in the north of Russia. For example, in the Komi Republic. And further along the entire coast of the Arctic Ocean. In other words, millions of tons of laughing gas are expected to flow.
Scientists believe that bacteria that process nitrates, nitrogenous compounds not absorbed by plants, began to intensively gas. If things go on like this, and it goes on - the permafrost thaws, turns into swamps - then life will become more fun not only in Russia. The wind will blow the joyous gas around the planet.
But it is not the worldwide laughter that frightens researchers. They see the main danger in the fact that nitrous oxide is also a greenhouse gas. And it is making a powerful contribution to the global warming process. It has been preserved in the atmosphere for over 110 years. That is 10 times longer than methane, another greenhouse gas that oozes from the tundra.