4. 500 Million Years From Now: Ozone Layer Destroyed, Mass Extinction
Still, whilst most of the world will have been sinking or otherwise being demolished, there will have been some return to normality during this period. Life will have started returning to the land and the oceans, following all the traumatic devastation caused to the environment previously, and whilst the creatures that roam the planet wouldn't look in any way familiar to us - owing to the slow crawl of evolution and adaptation to a very, very different climate - it's kinda nice to know that, throughout all this strife, life still finds a way. At least it does until the ozone layer finally gives up the ghost, thanks to the effects of global warming, meteors, volcanic ash and the general degradation it experiences over time. That's when everything really goes to pot. This is after we've been struck by another meteorite, a new Pangea-esque supercontinent has formed and since broken apart, and the Moon has been shunted far enough away from the Earth for solar eclipses to no longer be possible. Not that the remaining life would have been staring at it through pin pricks in black card anyway. That's partly because we doubt said creatures will have bothered creating card or sunglasses, partly because in 500 million years' time a gamma ray burst, or massive supernova, will have occurred close enough to Earth to affect the ozone layer and trigger a mass extinction. Well, that's the theory anyway, but it's a ruddy convincing one. And a terrifying one, too.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
