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The moon is about 1/4th the size of the Earth, or about as wide as the United States. The moon also significantly impacts our tides here on Earth. Now, the opti
by CSSer 3y ago
The moon is about 1/4th the size of the Earth, or about as wide as the United States. The moon also significantly impacts our tides here on Earth. Now, the optimist in me would say there's no way little old humanity could manage to find a way to screw that up. The pessimist in me notes that in roughly a hundred years we've managed to push our planet to the brink of ecological disaster, so to answer your question: yes, a little bit (but not the ecosystem you're referencing).
- danparsonson 3y agoAh well then pardon my snark - of course we humans are very determined when it comes to exploiting our environment but a crude look at the figures might set your mind at rest: Moon's mass - about 0.7x10^23 kgs Global annual iron ore output - about 2.5x10^12 kgs (per [1]) One over the other - 2.8x10^10 years So on the order of a billion years to remove one percent of it. And that's assuming we develop the same kind of demand for moon iron as we have here on Earth - so we have some time to think about it at least. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_iron_ore_production https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_iron_or...
- Apocryphon 3y agoEven a second-rate H.G. Wells adaptation could imagine humanity finding a way- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odrgDzciG6s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odrgDzciG6s
- DesiLurker 3y agomeh.. automated mining to solar panel construction & using the metal+energy to make a mass driver in a fully closed loop system. Now you'll have a exponentially increasing mining and space habitat and/or dyson swarm construction platform. I'll bet we can shred the moon clean off in under a few 100k years.
- quickthrower2 3y agoHow long to do Earth?
- danparsonson 3y agoBy which time everyone here will be long dead, so I don't think there's any need to lose sleep over it...
- quickthrower2 3y agoHumans have a way of supply creating demand. And tech will evolve. Tell the chatbot you want a USS Enterprise kind of thing and use your free startup credits to fund it. Might be possible within next say 10k years? Much less than a hundred billion.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]