What will earth - all its animals, bodies of water, plants & forestry, etc. - look like? Very similar to today? Totally different? Somewhere in-between? I realize 1,000 years is a small drop in the bucket in the grand scheme of time and history…

I was watching a documentary on the Aztecs, Mayans, and Incas and their society was massive. Not only that, but everything was turned to agriculture to support their society. What is fascinating is that they farmed the entire jungle. Every tree is planted in a certain place to benefit society. Of course, most of them are gone now and the jungle has taken over their areas. But what scientists have found is if you look closely at the jungle you will find all the edible trees or plants grouped together in a mini monoculture. There is no randomness in the jungle like it first appears but a plan that these people came up with and one that spread once their civilization was gone. The people who live in the jungles today benefit from these plans of the ancient people.

So in 1000 years what will Minnesota look like? If we are still here I think the trees might be different depending on global cooling or warming nuclear war, etc., the cities will be more spread out, and there even might be more areas of nature. Some animals will be gone, but others will thrive. People will probably be just as evil or more so, but as long as there are people here there will be those trying to do good and spread God's love.

If I knew that I'd probably be able to retire tomorrow and trip for the rest of my life lol.

I think MN will look more like Nebraska and Kansas, including flora and fauna. We will have lost all the big game we are accustomed to now.
Hunting licenses will be cheap because we'll be hunting species that tend to overpopulate with every breeding cycle.

Read DIRT: The Erosion of Civilizations by David R. Montgomery.

Author’s premise is that throughout history humans have misused and destroyed top soil resulting in the collapse of their civilizations due to inability to feed themselves.

deerfoot: "Read DIRT: The Erosion of Civilizations by David R. Montgomery.


Author’s premise is that throughout history humans have misused and destroyed top soil resulting in the collapse of their civilizations due to inability to feed themselves.
"

Interesting, a neighbor and green house farmer that rents his excess land to farmers in the Red River valley told me one time. "Farmers are killing the soil"

I'll check your book our deerfoot

deerfoot: "Read DIRT: The Erosion of Civilizations by David R. Montgomery.


Author’s premise is that throughout history humans have misused and destroyed top soil resulting in the collapse of their civilizations due to inability to feed themselves.
"

I'll have to check out that book. I live in the heart of farming country here, and grew up in a farming family. Many farmers - not all, there are some who are really trying to practice responsible land stewardship - are contributing to the eventual downfall of their way of life. They have absolutely no regard for the health and sustainability of the soil, and care only about wringing a few extra bushels out of it in the short term. It's really sad.

The reckoning has begun and we'll be reduced by drought, famine, rising seas, lost topsoil, and so on. If you want to know MN's coming climate, look 500 miles to the south. It'll be like Kansas or MO, temp-wise. It's hard to say what its precipitation will be. MO with more water is forest. Kansas with less water is grassland. Wet or dry, summers will sizzle and winters will be mild.

If our species is reduced to less than a billion, good things will happen. The skies will fill with birds again and the oceans with fish. I wish I were here to witness all that, but the road to that better place will be paved with suffering.

missmolly: "The reckoning has begun and we'll be reduced by drought, famine, rising seas, lost topsoil, and so on. If you want to know MN's coming climate, look 500 miles to the south. It'll be like Kansas or MO, temp-wise. It's hard to say what its precipitation will be. MO with more water is forest. Kansas with less water is grassland. Wet or dry, summers will sizzle and winters will be mild.


If our species is reduced to less than a billion, good things will happen. The skies will fill with birds again and the oceans with fish. I wish I were here to witness all that, but the road to that better place will be paved with suffering. "

This has me wondering where our society currently stands (versus the past) in terms of suffering, comfort, contentment, etc. Most humans don’t face much adversity on a regular basis. Many are obese. Comfort, in my perspective, doesn’t always bring great results for individuals. It can bring great results for a society, though. A certain amount of suffering can make a person hard. But too hard isn’t necessarily a good thing. Man, balance is a tricky subject.

deerfoot: "Read DIRT: The Erosion of Civilizations by David R. Montgomery.


Author’s premise is that throughout history humans have misused and destroyed top soil resulting in the collapse of their civilizations due to inability to feed themselves.
"

I read this book for a book club I participate in through the local nature center. Sadly, the author is not too optimistic for our future. I think back to college coursework I took in the early 1970’s and several of my professors talked about many of the environmental problems we are now facing.

8 billion people now-1000 years-it's scary what the population will be like. Weapons of mass destruction will be used by then.

You ever seen the movie Idiocracy? Yikes!!

In all seriousness, to me this is hard to fathom. I look back a thousand years ago and compare it to now. Just carry that on for the next thousand years!

Man has continually used and destroyed the natural world out of ambition and ignorance. Logging, fishing. Look what we used to do with wastewater and how far we have come to correct it. Even with all of the knowledge we have right now, we are continuing to harm the world in some way and we have no idea yet we are doing it.

Look at how we design, construct and re-construct areas of development. Engineers and designers are using the mistakes we made in the past to correct and “make right” what we did wrong before.

I am not sure we can visualize how our natural world will look like in 1,000 years, I really can’t. Do what you can as an individual and as a good steward of the dirt you own and the community where you live.

Great question and mind blowing to think about.

JW

MidwestMan: "What will earth - all its animals, bodies of water, plants & forestry, etc. - look like? Very similar to today? Totally different? Somewhere in-between? I realize 1,000 years is a small drop in the bucket in the grand scheme of time and history… "

I believe that sometime within the next 75-150 years our global human civilization will change from being biologically based to technology (artificial, digital, or whatever you want to call it) based, not requiring the needs of a biological world or universe to sustain itself. Any living creature relying on physical biological processes will go extinct. Trans-humanism and technological singularity, which are both in motion (i.e., your iPhone), will leave your interesting question mute.

Time to plan a trip while you can.

2X post

People unfortunately are like yeast and will continue to expand and use up the available resources until they kill themselves off with their own waste
products. unfortunately man’s waste products aren’t near as tasty as yeast waste products!

If the seas rise as predicted you will see a mass migration inward. If water runs out in the desert southwest….more migration. Minnesota has an abundance of water, natural resources and agriculture. Minnesota will become much more populated in the next 100-200 years……unless Yellowstone blows its lid or large astroid strike. Wars over limited resources, mass migrations….who knows. 1000 years from now the earth will be well on its way to healing the wounds mankind has inflicted.

The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
2 It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
3 It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
4Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
5Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
6 And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
7 And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell: the soil
8Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.
9And for all this, nature is never spent;
10 There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
11And though the last lights off the black West went
12 Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs —
13Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
14 World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

Have faith.

This topic reminds me of a poem I wrote shortly after moving full time on the White Earth Reservation.

Our life on earth beginning soon
and ending soon indeed
Space ship earths tanks are empty
Time is short in the time of plenty

I think the Terminator summed it up well when responding to young John Conner’s question - “we’re (humanity) not going to make it are we?” The Terminator responds - “no, it’s in your nature to destroy yourselves.”

My theory:

Humanity developed by the Earth to retrieve all the carbon trapped in rock over the eons. Once this carbon is retrieved and freed into the atmosphere our job is done, the planet will rid itself of the tool it no longer needs.

Banksiana: "My theory:


Humanity developed by the Earth to retrieve all the carbon trapped in rock over the eons. Once this carbon is retrieved and freed into the atmosphere our job is done, the planet will rid itself of the tool it no longer needs."

You sound like a Gaian guy. If you're right, things will become very interesting again in the future for big carbon produces big critters.

"Welcome back, Titanoboa!" I'll say.

"Hello, talking lunch," the great snake will hiss.

YaMarVa: "

MidwestMan: "What will earth - all its animals, bodies of water, plants & forestry, etc. - look like? Very similar to today? Totally different? Somewhere in-between? I realize 1,000 years is a small drop in the bucket in the grand scheme of time and history… "

I believe that sometime within the next 75-150 years our global human civilization will change from being biologically based to technology (artificial, digital, or whatever you want to call it) based, not requiring the needs of a biological world or universe to sustain itself. Any living creature relying on physical biological processes will go extinct. Trans-humanism and technological singularity, which are both in motion (i.e., your iPhone), will leave your interesting question mute.


Time to plan a trip while you can."

I believe this as well. Phones are like a fifth appendage.

With the way things are going, I thought that "1000 years from now" was your 2023 ice-out prediction.....