Peak oil

[Crazy Cooter]

lol.  I'm lazy... but I don't have dollars or cents

[shmokes]

Any alien race commuting between galaxies or solar systems would therefore have mastered the ability to distort the fabric of space surrounding their spaceship.

Maybe they just have a Heart of Gold.

[danny_galaga]

i have a pessimistic view for humans, optimistic for the planet. we can quite easily wipe ourselves out but in my view it will take only a very short time (maybe an ice age or two) to fix things up again. wont be any help to us but at least in a sense we will leave the planet as we found it, even allowing for nuclear wars etc since even then radiation levels will die down in the blink of an eye compared to the age of the earth.
but the world will be totally different people might say. so what? the world is constantly changing anyway.

but geez, it would be nice to have a star trek-esque future...

[jbox]

since even then radiation levels will die down in the blink of an eye compared to the age of the earth.

It seems like every second post here is reminding me of a book. "Toolmaker Koan" by John McLoughlin deals with an AI space ship whose creators killed each other. It has been wandering around the galaxy for millenia looking for more sentient life (which always seems to wipe itself out). The key underlying idea of the book is that people cannot possibly fathom what a million years really is, or what might take place over millions of years for objects as 'immortal' as planets.

[Bones]

i have a pessimistic view for humans, optimistic for the planet. we can quite easily wipe ourselves out but in my view it will take only a very short time (maybe an ice age or two) to fix things up again. wont be any help to us but at least in a sense we will leave the planet as we found it, even allowing for nuclear wars etc since even then radiation levels will die down in the blink of an eye compared to the age of the earth.
but the world will be totally different people might say. so what? the world is constantly changing anyway.

but geez, it would be nice to have a star trek-esque future...

The fact is:

If man was extinguished tomorrow and was no more, the only suffering would be by domesticated animals. The environment and the ecosystems would instantly benefit. It would take some time to return to the natural balance eroded over the last 1000 years (with emphasis on the previous 100 years), but there is no reason to believe the natural balance would not return. This does not mean it will return to the same appearance or necessarily function the same, it will just find a level where it is in harmony with itself.

How quickly would this happen? I suppose this depends on how long humans are around...... Maybe for every year after now, you should add another 10, 000 years to your own guesstimate.

[Dartful Dodger]

If man was extinguished tomorrow and was no more, the only suffering would be by domesticated animals.

I'd say man would be the last animal to be extinguished.

[ChadTower]

War and disease will wipe out humanity long before the Earth is unable to support it.