{"id":790806,"date":"2026-07-09T15:45:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T15:45:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/790806\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T15:45:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T15:45:10","slug":"scientists-predict-when-earths-last-plants-will-die","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/790806\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientists predict when Earth&#8217;s last plants will die"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>But the study says that may not necessarily be the end.<\/p>\n<p>Evolution could extend plant life even further<\/p>\n<p>The authors say future plant evolution or advanced technologies capable of regulating Earth&#8217;s climate could extend the survival of vegetation beyond the modelled timeline.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In the absence of technology, life may still find a way to survive,&#8221; the researchers write.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We can imagine a scenario in which plants evolve the ability to regulate their temperature and pressure, perhaps in response to changing climates. As the sun brightens, plants may favor an aerial environment and adapt accordingly, spreading to high-altitude terrain and into the stratosphere and beyond.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>It may sound like science fiction, but the authors point to <a href=\"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/10.1089\/ast.2024.0080\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">previous research<\/a> suggesting there are &#8220;no theoretical obstacles for the evolution and adaptation of photosynthetic life to a space environment.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Life has already shown the ability to persist in harsh conditions: Evolution has repeatedly allowed organisms to survive in environments <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theweathernetwork.com\/en\/news\/science\/space\/scientists-show-simulated-lunar-and-martian-can-grow-crops-but-dont-like-spinach\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">once considered uninhabitable<\/a>, and the paper suggests plants could continue adapting as Earth&#8217;s conditions change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"But the study says that may not necessarily be the end. Evolution could extend plant life even further&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":790807,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[49,48,66],"class_list":["post-790806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=790806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/790807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=790806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=790806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=790806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}