Extraterrestrial

Study: aliens are also likely to suffer from the effects of climate change

By T.K. Randall
October 6, 2024 ·  9 comments

Climate change may not be exclusive to the Earth. Image Credit: Archange1Michael While it's obviously difficult to speculate on the development of alien civilizations, in a new study, astrophysicists determined that - in all likelihood - climate change is not a phenomenon unique to the Earth but is in fact something that could cause problems for any technologically advanced civilization.

By running simulations, they determined that any civilization that experiences exponential technological growth and energy consumption will change their own planet's climate to such an extent that it will be rendered uninhabitable within as little as 1,000 years.

This is the case even if they exclusively use renewable forms of energy.

This is because, no matter how efficient the energy system, some of the heat will leak out and heat up the planet's atmosphere over an extended period of time."You can think of it like a leaky bathtub," said astrophysicist and study co-author Manasvi Lingam.

Of course, this doesn't take into account potential technologies capable of reducing or reversing this effect, nor does it take into account an interplanetary civilization that generates power off-world.

It could also be possible to carefully balance resources to avoid a runaway heating effect.

"If a species has opted for equilibrium, has learned to live in harmony with its surroundings, that species and its descendants could survive maybe up to a billion years," said Lingham.

Source: Live Science | Comments (9)

Tags: Alien