Scientist says doomsday coming in 2.8b years   

研究称地球气温将持续上升 20亿年后只剩微生物

(ECNS) -- A scientist in the UK has predicted that all plant and animal species will be extinct in a billion years, and that the last surviving creatures on Earth will be microbes, according to Hong Kong-based newspaper Ming Pao.

Astrobiologist Jack O'Malley-James from the University of St Andrews in Scotland used a computer model to assess our planet's fate billions of years from now. As the Sun ages and grows hotter, greater evaporation and chemical reactions with rainwater will take away more and more carbon dioxide, he said.

In less than a billion years, its levels will be too low for photosynthesizing plants to survive, and when that happens, life on Earth will cease to exist, he also said.

After another billion years, the oceans will have dried out completely and the temperature will be as high as 100℃, together with intense ultraviolet radiation. Only microbes could live in such a harsh environment.

However, in about 2.8 billion years, even those microbes will fail to live, which means doomsday for Earth, said O'Malley-James.