this post was submitted on 18 Aug 2023
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Yeah. But, considering the geological epochs of time required to evolve from bacteria/fungi/protists into complex macroscopic life the impact is unimaginably large.
Well... it's not like the so-called primitive lifeforms have stopped evolving since some of them had success with multicellularity. They'd have a massive head start retrying that.
My guess is, Earth could squeeze another attempt at intelligent life in before the sun crashes the party. No pressure, tho.
The problem is we’ve done an excellent job depleting a lot of the easily accessible resources, so even when our replacements come along, they’re probably going to have a hard time getting to where we are in such a short time.
500My is enough time to form new deposits of coal and oil. Plate tectonics and erosion are going to make more minerals accessible over time, too. And let's not forget these strange carbon rich mixed-ore deposits with quartz beads and fossilized Nokias sprinkled throughout.
which was just 360My to 300My ago. 😉
Inability to break down wood is speculative afair, but any fast sedimentation in an oxygen deprived environment (bogs, seasonal floodplains, etc...) will have the same effect today going forward. All the extra carbon will be used by life again and subsequently deposited somewhere - that's a pretty safe bet to make.