No. We'll survive after oil and coal too.
Assuming an advanced civilization lasts 100,000 years, the distances between stars make it a low probability of contact. It't like an ant in australia knowing anout another ant in usa.
Assuming the theory of an infinite universe is correct, you're right; there should be lots of alien civilizations. However, the likelihood that there is intelligent life exactly at this time, in exactly the radius close enough to us to be seen, is next to impossible. If alien races have or do exist. They are very, very far away. Earth is a very young planet, and humans have only been alive a fraction of how long earth has been around. Good question!
Well let's assume AGW did turn out to be catastrophic; civilisation collapsed and billions died. Wouldn't there be survivors who, as the planet recovered, would build a new civilisation and with the benefit of hindsight, avoid the earlier mistakes? I don't think CAGW would affect the number of civilisations, though it could delay their arrival on the galactic stage by a millenium or so.
So are there such civilisations out there? The only way we could detect them would be by radio. But resources dedicated to transmission would be expensive; perhaps there are loads of civilisations just listening, wondering why the universe appears so sparsely populated.
If we could develop a telescope powerful enough to detect routine transmissions of the sort that we generate, say over a significant proportion of the galaxy, perhaps then we would have a better idea of the answer.
If we did find some, perhaps by monitoring their transmissions, we could find out what we are in for regarding AGW!
Space is big . The Closest Star is 5 1/2 light years away and at current speeds
take 100,000 of years to get there . If you had a vehicle and a fuel that does not
weigh a lot and goes 99.99999% of light or C it still would take years .
Unless they live on suns, they would be hard to find - and even if you could see them, you can only see their past. If you are looking at something 100,000 light years away, maybe they were not there 100,000 years ago - and they would have the same problem looking at earth.
You're on a roll. What are some other things that you know nothing about?.
They saw all the CO2 would cause global warming and left.
Carbon Dioxide was only ever the least of their problems. Asteroid strikes and nuclear anhiilation are far more plausible causes of extinction
This is the GW category not the I'm crazy category
global warming caused by burning fossil fuels?
