You can't imagine my relief to learn that the earth will "survive" the end of the sun (whatever that means).

Frankly, the thought that the earth wouldn't "survive" being engulfed in a red giant six billion years from now hasn't been keeping me staring at the ceiling all night, and to me, absent life, the earth doesn't have much value. I'm not sure why these folks think we would care whether or not there's still a big spherical sterile rock pile here.

If all life is killed off by the neutrinos, even if our structures survive in the core, there won't be folks around to appreciate it for a while. Maybe we'll save everyone to disk and reboot.

By then we will have evolved, so that we are just globes of pure energy, free to move around the universe at will, un-encumbered by a physical body.

Or, at least that's the way it always happened on Star Trek.

If we're still here (as opposed to extinction or complete migration elsewhere) and if it still matters at all to us (it may not), I've little doubt that by the time that the beginning of the red giant phase is an issue, we'll be able to do something about it. (which could mean re-locating Earth [it would take only a modest but continuous nudge to keep pace with the changes] or even altering the rate of fusion in the Sun itself.

The latter's pretty radical, I know. But six gigayears is lots of time to find the required technologies [or physics])

One thing is quite clear.

When the sun finaly goes kaboom, the Global Warming denialists will be proven correct.

When the sun finaly goes kaboom, the Global Warming denialists will be proven correct.

Of course, AGW evangelist will still be blaming mankind.

Ole mz is still trying to justify Kyoto on this thread:

http://www.transterrestrial.com/archives/009701.html

He even trots out the old "per capita" excuse for America's geopolitical and military rival, Red China. He also uses arguments from authority.

Here is an excerpt of my latest response to mz:

"mz says,

About Kyoto, well, it's a start, I'd say. Fossil fuel use in western countries is very large per capita. Of course all countries should get in, but since they use much less per capita, it'd be hypocritical to ask them to cut while we still produce much more than them. One reason China produces so much CO2 is because it has over one sixth of the whole world's population.

Kyoto does nothing to reduce CO2 emissions! It excludes major industrial non-Western Countries. Cuts in CO2 must be global. The U.S. won't put itself at an economic disadvantage to its geopolitical and military rival China. Who taught you in socio-political topics, Captain Crunch?

You're arguing the 'per capita' excuse for China and India? Your kidding right? China's total output just exceeded the U.S.'s total output this year! If a van with ten people throws out 2 lbm of trash out the window; they will still produce more litter on the road than a van with one person throwing out 1 lbm of trash out the window even though the one-man-van has a higher "per capita" litter level.

or even altering the rate of fusion in the Sun itself.

I could see us scavenging unclaimed yellow-dwarf stars for their hydrogen. If they go into premature red-giant phase with nobody to suffer from it, we might consider it justified in order to keep Sol's primary fusion process going.

If we really wanted to go to the trouble by then, especially since in five billion years there may not be any yellow-dwarf stars that haven't been claimed.

The galactic bourgeoisie would be demolishing the existing balls of rock and building McPlanets in their place.

If all life is killed off by the neutrinos,

The sun will never emit enough neutrinos to do this. Earth will be sterilized the good old fashioned way, by heat (unless someone intervenes).

When the sun finaly goes kaboom,

The sun is not going to explode. It will brighten considerably, and at some point shed mass over a period of thousands of years, but it won't explode.

Besides, its possible the Earth's magnetic core will go out before then.

I think I'd care whether or not the Earth is still there, sterile or not. I'm sure I'd be nostalgic about the place, kind of the way I feel about the place I grew up or the lot where my grandparents lived (the house is long gone).

Sure I'd care, if I were still around...

Besides, its possible the Earth's magnetic core will go out before then.

If you mean the Earth will lose its magnetic field, so what? This would not be catastrophic.