Hello Sid 42. I have reading this type of thing since the CD was invented. I think that there was a lot of variability in CD quality in the early days. Perhaps today too. As a result, deterioration has been observed. However, it may be that it was due to manufacturing and material quality more than any inherent deterioration. The best answer you may get at the moment is that nobody knows for sure whether CD's last "forever" because CD's haven't been around "forever".
I am not in the position to dispute the opinions of physicists and engineers who know more than me about such things. However, it is certainly true that poor environmental storage conditions will deteriorate anything eventually, including magnetic tape, so maybe a backup every once in a while wouldn't hurt, especially now that storage is inexpensive. I do not understand what difference a 7200 rpm hard drive makes, as opposed to 5400 rpm. As Nsgarch has suggested, you might want to keep your CDs away from extreme heat (or children with pointy objects). CDs can certainly melt or be physically damaged. I would also keep them out of direct sunlight since UV radiation does funny things to plastic type material.
I am not in the position to dispute the opinions of physicists and engineers who know more than me about such things. However, it is certainly true that poor environmental storage conditions will deteriorate anything eventually, including magnetic tape, so maybe a backup every once in a while wouldn't hurt, especially now that storage is inexpensive. I do not understand what difference a 7200 rpm hard drive makes, as opposed to 5400 rpm. As Nsgarch has suggested, you might want to keep your CDs away from extreme heat (or children with pointy objects). CDs can certainly melt or be physically damaged. I would also keep them out of direct sunlight since UV radiation does funny things to plastic type material.