Science Podcast | There’s no one out there because… climate change wiped them out

When astrophysicists simulated the rise and fall of alien civilizations, they found that if a civilization experienced exponential technological growth and energy consumption, it would take less than 1,000 years before the alien planet became too hot to be habitable.

And worse, this would be true even if civilization used renewable energy sources, due to the inevitable leakage in the form of heat, as predicted by the laws of thermodynamics.

While astrophysicists wanted to understand the implications for life beyond our planet, their study was initially inspired by human energy use, which has grown exponentially since the 19th century. In 2023, humans used about 180,000 terawatt hours (TWh), which is about the same amount of energy reaching Earth from the sun at any given time.

All episodes of “Dark Materials” can be found on the main audio platforms, such as Spotify, Ivoox, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Musicand We could. They are also available in YouTube.